The Eighteen
by Electron82
Summary: After the Kalos League, Lance and the G-Men are investigating attacks by a mysterious creature. But when plans are revealed and disaster strikes, the Champions have no idea what to do. Luckily, they have backup on their side, which happens to come in the form of a bunch of teenagers. Multiple pairings later on (Pokeshipping, Contestshipping, Ikarishipping, etc).
1. Prologue - The Journey Continues

The Eighteen

Chapter 1

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Evening. Kalos Region Prison.**

Darkness.

That was all that the man could see, with the faintest outline of light from around the corner. The whole block was covered in it, except for that faint pulsing light. The man looked up through the cell bars and saw another man holding a lantern, while navigating the prison block. The man's face was hidden from view, as the lantern did not manage to light up that area of the man's body.

"Are you Lysandre?", asked the second man, with a menacing British accent.

The man stared at him, fear in his eyes, but nevertheless confidently stroked his orange hair.

"Yes, that's me. What do you want?", asked the former businessman.

The man with the lantern stood calmly and threw a business card quickly through the cell bars. Lysandre caught it and looked down to read what the note said, and was met with confusion.

 **Team Rainbow Rocket**

"What is this?", the orange-haired man asked, with visible confusion on his face.

The man looked right into Lysandre's face after that. The lantern had finally managed to reveal the man's face, and the former businessman let out a quiet gasp of surprise.

"A business proposition.", stated the man.

Lysandre's facial expression changed to one of understanding, and he managed to sit up straight. There were only two options here. Either deny his offer and stay in this accursed prison, or accept and be back into the world. He thought about it for a moment, and came to a clear decision on what he wanted to do.

"I'm in."

"Good. I knew you would see it that way." The man took a key from his pocket and inserted it into the cell lock. The bar door slid open, and a staggering Lysandre walked out of the cell for the first time in weeks.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?!", shouted the voice of a nearby prison guard. The man looked in that direction, and threw an object down the hall. He could hear a small explosion and a distinct 'thump' on the floor as he started to walk away.

"You'll find out soon enough."

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Pidgeot Airlines Flight K51. Evening.**

A 16 year-old young man sat in his plane seat, and stared out into the dark sky. Since the plane was so far up in the air, he could barely see anything out of the window besides lots of clouds. Now that his Kalos journey was over, he could finally be back home and enjoy being in one place for a while.

"Pika!", came the cry of a small Electric Mouse Pokemon, as he pointed in the direction of the window and out into the sky.

"What is it, Pikachu?". Ash Ketchum looked out the window and saw what his buddy was pointing to. "Woah, that cloud looks so cool!", the boy said a little too overenthusiastically. The other passengers took a quick look at the source of the loud sound earlier, but soon went back to doing their own things.

As Ash continued to sit on the plane, with Pikachu right besides him, he began to reminisce about the past adventures that the two of them had shared. From being with Brock and Misty, all the way up to his Kalos adventures with Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie. Meanwhile, his focus shifted towards Serena, who was one of his best friends. When she kissed him back at the airport, he didn't know how to respond to that…

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Lumiose Airport, Terminal 3. Afternoon.**

" **Attention. Latias Airlines Flight H71 will finish boarding soon. Ticket holders who have not boarded yet, please proceed to the gate immediately"** , rang the monotonal voice of the airport PA system. Serena quickly ran over to the escalator, then turned around to face Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie.

"Kay, it's time to go!", said Serena. "Ash, Clemont, Bonnie, you've all given me so very much, more than I could say!" "Give us a call once in a while!", said Clemont, while Bonnie responded with "Yeah, you can be sure that we'll all come and visit you!".

Serena chuckled and continued on. "Ash,thank you. I'm glad I came with you. You're the kind of person I wanna be!" "Next time we meet, you're gonna like the person I've grown into, stated Serena.

"Awesome!", Ash exclaimed enthusiastically.

A silent moment passed, and Serena began to walk onto the escalator. "See you!", she said, while getting on the first steps of the escalator. As she was waiting to get off, she quickly made a decision that she would stand by. As she looked up at Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie at the top of the escalator, she shouted "Hey Ash! There's just one more thing!".

She ran up the escalator and at the moment she reached the top, it was as almost time itself was still. She quickly leaned in and gave her crush a quick peck on the lips, and then leaned back as the escalator carried her downward to her flight gate. Ash just stood there with a confused expression on his face, while Clemont and Bonnie's jaws had dropped in surprise.

"Thank you!", yelled Serena as she started walking toward her flight gate, with her next journey in Hoenn already in her mind. Ash, however, didn't know what to make of this, and just stood at the top of the escalator with visible confusion on his face until Clemont and Bonnie regained their senses and went over to him. "Ash, are you ok?", asked Bonnie. "Yeah… I guess…", he mused.

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Pidgeot Airlines Flight K51. Evening.**

Ash continued to think to himself as he wondered what had happened earlier at the airport. He couldn't understand for the life of him why Serena kissed him. If she really liked him, then that would explain all those times when Serena was acting nervous around him… Ash didn't know what to think of it. It was a good thing he was planning on settling down in Pallet Town for a while before he headed off on his next journey. He would have more time to go over this situation at home.

As Ash was remembering all the great moments he had in Kalos with his friends, a voice rang out through the PA system. "We are cleared for landing in Viridian City Airport. We are expected to set down in approximately 30 minutes." As the passengers heard this, they soon got ready to set down in Kanto.

"Wow, I can't believe we're almost home! Right, Pikachu?", said Ash while looking in his partner Pokemon's face.

"Pika-chu!", replied Pikachu cheerily as they continued to look into the sky and wonder about what would happen in the near future for themselves.

* * *

This is my first fanfiction, so be warned for bad writing and mistakes at times. Feel free to review, and constructive criticism is appreciated. I don't own Pokemon or any of its associated properties and licenses.


	2. I - Home Sweet Home

**The Eighteen**

 **Chapter 2**

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Route 1, Kanto. Evening.**

"Look, Pikachu! It's Pallet Town!"

"Pika!"

Ash was standing on the small hill that overlooked the quaint town located in southeastern Kanto. Once he landed in Viridian City, he made the trek through Route 1, and along the way he reminisced about his past adventures on this path.

Saying goodbye to Brock all those times at the fork in the road between Pewter and Pallet, unsure whether his best friend would be back for another adventure.

The open field where he crashed and subsequently destroyed Misty's bike while escaping that flock of Spearow along with Pikachu.

The uphill slope where he was attempting to drag Pikachu along for the ride with a rope because he wouldn't listen to him.

And lastly, he thought about Pallet Town, which he hadn't seen in a few months, but was nevertheless excited to be back home.

"C'mon Pikachu, lets go!"

Ash and Pikachu ran down the hill to Pallet as fast as they could, overly excited to finally settle down at home, and to get to see Ash's old Pokemon at Professor Oak's Lab. However, they accidently tripped on a rock that was in the middle of the path, and soon were both on the ground, laughing at their mistake.

Once they ended up in Pallet Town, Ash decided to see his mother first, as it was the middle of the night, and he would most likely need a place to sleep. He also made a mental note to go to Professor Oak's in the morning.

"Ding-Dong."

Ash stood at the front door waiting for his mother to presumably open the door and let him in, but not without one of her bone-crushing hugs. A few more seconds passed, and his face brightened once he heard faint footsteps from inside the house.

"Oh Ash, I can't believe you're home! Now come on in, I don't want you to wait here any longer!", said a happy Delia Ketchum, relieved that her son had finally came to visit.

Ash smiled and went inside the house, and he was sure that this was going to be a long night due to all the questions his mom might ask him about his Kalos adventures.

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Pewter City, Kanto. Evening.**

"Hey, Misty! Nice of you to come by!", exclaimed Brock Harrison happily as he opened the door to his house to find one of his best friends at his porch. "So what are you here for?"

"Oh, I just decided to stop by. It's the first day off I've had in awhile!", said Misty.

"Well, you're always welcome here!", said Brock. He then turned around, now facing inside the house, and shouted into the halls. "Hey guys, Misty's here!".

Suddenly, a loud rush of footsteps could be heard from inside the house as soon as Misty entered the building. Soon, she was surrounded by all of Brock's siblings. Forrest, Yolanda, Salvadore, Tommy, Cindy, Suzie, Timmy, Billy and Tilly were all on top of Misty, and she unfortunately was at the bottom of this enormous dogpile.

"Wow, it's Misty! Is she staying for dinner?", asked Yolanda.

"I don't see why not. I'm not busy for the rest of the night.", said Misty.

"Ok, I'll get cooking, while the rest of you can wait in the living room.", said Brock as he started to head off into the kitchen."

"Oh, I was just about to ask. Where are your parents, Brock?", asked Misty, suspicious as to why they hadn't shown up yet.

"Oh, they were feeling tired today, so I let them have the day off.", said Brock. "I guess that means more work for me!", he said sarcastically.

"No problem! I can't wait to try out your food again, it's been forever!", shouted an enthusiastic Misty.

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Snowpoint City, Kanto. Evening.**

May Maple walked back inside the Pokemon Center through its front entrance, and quickly found a table and sat down on it. Even though the weather in Snowpoint City was freezing, she had to put in some last-minute training with her team before the Pokemon Contest that was being held in the city's new contest hall. She had the chance to earn her fifth ribbon to gain entry into the Grand Festival, and she was determined to win, no matter what.

May looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching, and she saw Drew, Harley, and Solidad approach her from the Pokemon Center cafeteria.

"So, you're finally ready? I could have sworn you were out there for hours.", smirked Drew as he sat down across from May.

"Yeah, and I won't lose this time!" Back in the Chocovine Town Contest, May barely lost to Drew, and so he, along with Harley and Solidad, were now eligible for the Grand Festival, which was set to begin in early January.

"Eh, that's what they all say.", stated Harley with a smug look on his face. "You know, we all could have been at Valor Lakefront already if you hadn't lost that contest in Veilstone a few months ago."

"I know that!", shouted an angry May. "You don't have to rub it in, you know!"

"Okay, okay! That's enough!"

The three Coordinators turned around to see Solidad with an angry expression on her face, and backed away in fear.

"Fine, I was planning on going to bed early tonight anyway.", said May, as she sulked off to her room inside the Pokemon Center.

Harley looked in the direction that May went, and then back to Solidad and Drew, and quickly ran off in the direction of his room as well. "Gotta go!", he shouted as he ran away from the two remaining Coordinators.

"Man, what's his problem?", asked Drew, as he turned to face Solidad.

"Maybe you should focus more on your problem instead.", Solidad said. Drew's face visibly turned pale at this mention. What was he thinking? He knew he could never keep a secret from Solidad, she knew him like the back of her own hand.

"Everyone knows that you've got feelings for her.", smirked Solidad. "Who knows, she might just feel the same way." Drew sighed and started to walk away. "I'm going to my room.", he said with a sulking expression on his face.

As Drew went off to his room, Solidad laughed to herself. She had known Drew ever since he started out as a Coordinator, and once she saw his rivalry with May during the Kanto Grand Festival, she knew something was up.

As Solidad walked out of the Pokemon Center lobby and towards the rooms, she wondered how the contest the next day would turn out. Drew almost seemed to motivate May to one-up him every chance she got, and that was no different than in contests. Who knows, he might just be able to bring out May's battling spirit and help her reach the Sinnoh Grand Festival.

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Pewter City, Kanto. Evening.**

"Wow, Brock! That food was incredible! Just as I remembered!", exclaimed Misty, who had just finished her dinner along with Brock and his siblings. Suddenly, Brock looked out the window, and after a moment, turned back around to the table.

"Hey, I have an idea! Let's go to the park! The night sky looks great this time of year, and it would be perfect to go out and get some fresh air! Who's with me!"

"Yeah!", chorused Brock's brothers and sisters.

"I don't see why not. I mean, it would be nice to have some fresh air once in a while.", said Misty.

Once they got to the park, the group began to relax and settle down. Brock's siblings were scattered along the park as they were playing with each other. Meanwhile, Misty decided to sit down on a nearby bench, and soon after Brock came over and sat down next to her.

"So, how's the Gym Leader life been, huh? Any hard challengers lately?", asked Brock.

"Nah, Gyarados takes care of them quickly. I just hope my sisters are doing fine with me out for the night. You know how incompetent they are at battling.", said Misty, who hoped that her sisters didn't humiliate her Gym's success in just one night.

"Oh wow, your sisters! I almost forgot! They're all so beautiful… , droned Brock, obviously sick with love at the moment. Misty, however, was quick to the punch, or should I say pull, as she grabbed her friend by the ear and pulled him back to his sanity.

"Huh, I should have at least expected that to happen by now… ", said Misty, as Brock came back to his senses, while tendering his ear.

Brock, who was back to normal, continued their conversation. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention this, but in April I'll be starting an internship at the Pokemon Medical Institute in Saffron City!"

"Wow, Brock! That's great! I knew all that time you spent training to be a Pokemon Doctor paid off!", exclaimed Misty, who was happy for her friend.

"Yeah, it definitely did. Oh, by the way, I heard that Ash came back from Kalos today! His flight gets in around now, but I'm sure he'll be all settled in by tomorrow morning.", said Brock.

"Really? Why didn't you tell me that earlier!", exclaimed Misty, as she was happy to hear that Ash had come back. "I'll call him first thing tomorrow morning!", she happily stated to Brock.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. What are you so excited for anyway? It's just like other times when Ash has come back. Or something has changed between you two, has it?", said Brock, with a curious expression on his face.

He watched as Misty's face turned bright red, and Brock immediately regretted his decision. "WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!", she shouted in his face, and Brock backed away from her as fast as he could.

"Okay, Misty. Whatever you say.", Brock said calmly as he sat back down on the bench. He quickly checked his watch, and had a stern look on his face as he looked at the time. "It's getting late. We should get back, and I don't want to worry Mom and Dad if someone gets lost. "Ok, let's get going, then.", said Misty, as she stood up along with Brock, and began to look for Brock's siblings.

After they had found everybody and were heading back, Misty turned to Brock with a suspicious look on her face. "That's weird. There doesn't seem to be anybody here at all! With a beautiful night like this, I would imagine more people being outside at this time."

"It's probably nothing to worry about, Misty. I'm sure we'll be fine.", reassured Brock.

BOOM!

As soon as the explosion hit, the group freaked out in every direction. When they finally gained the courage to look into the wreckage, they were shocked at what they saw.

The whole park was basically gone, the grass the group was standing on now reduced to a barren earth, along with the trees. Forrest walked into the destruction, despite the rest of the group's attempts to stop him.

"What… What is that thing?!", shouted Forrest. Approaching the group was a blacdk shadow, almost like a reflector, that depleted all the light in the surrounding area. Brock and Misty stood out from their hiding spots, and were shocked at what they found. Most of the park was completely destroyed, including the famous monument in the center, and the night sky seemed to get even darker around this shadow. The rest of Brock's siblings crowded around him, with cries of despair coming from their mouths.

"Brock, I'm scared!", shouted Salvadore. "What should we do?", desperately asked Suzie. Brock looked down, and quietly whispered something to his brothers and sisters.

"Run, and go back home. Misty and I will take care of this. Now go!", said Brock, with a tear in his eye. His siblings nodded and ran back to their house as fast as they could. Forrest, however, was still standing in front of the shadow with fear in his eyes. "Forrest! Run!", shouted Brock, as he saw his brother remain standing in front of the shadow.

Brock, wanting to protect his brother, ran up to him and shoved him out of the way. "Go now, Forrest"

Forrest finally regained his senses, and ran off with the rest of his siblings, leaving Brock and Misty alone and scared for their lives.

"Misty, what do we do? I don't know what this… thing is?", asked Brock, who was scared out of his mind.

"I don't know, Brock! I' don't know!", shouted Misty.

As the shadow started to come closer, Brock and Misty tried to back away and make a run for it. However, as they were attempting to escape, they began to feel weak for some reason, like this reflector was making them lose focus, and soon slumped to the ground, unconscious.

All of a sudden, the black shadow disappeared, leaving no trace that it had ever been there, besides for the destruction of basically the whole park, of course.

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Indigo Plateau, Kanto. Night.**

"What's going on?!"

"Something's messing with our radar signals!"

The headquarters of the Indigo Division of the Pokemon G-Men was panicking. The G-Men office at Indigo Plateau had lost all connection to the radars in Pewter City that were used to detect crime in the area. The officers were extremely worried that this would turn out badly, and so one brave G-Men agent rushed to the Champion office to alert the Champion of the situation.

"Champion Lance, sir. There's a problem.", stammered the agent, as he recollected himself to catch his breath.

Lance Grayson sighed and look up from his desk. He was not a late night person, and all he really wanted was to get a good night of sleep and prepare for tomorrow. But, as the leader of the Indigo G-Men, he had to get to the bottom of this.

"Yes, agent. What's the situation?", he said in a calm voice.

"Um… sir… we've lost connection with the radars in Pewter, sir. This might be an emergency."

"Arceus.", Lance sweared to himself. Why did incidents like these happen at the worst possible time?

"I'll be there right away. Take care of the office while I'm gone.", exclaimed Lance as he stood up and walked down to the door of his office.

Once he was out of the building, he sent out his trusty Dragonite. The fierce Dragon Pokemon had gotten him out of plenty of tough situations, especially the Team Rocket incident at the Lake of Rage a few years back.

"Let's go, Dragonite. To Pewter City."

"Dragoo!"

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Pallet Town, Kanto. Night.**

"Hey Ashy-boy, how's it going'?"

Ash looked towards the door to see Professor Oak, and surprisingly his grandson Gary at the front entrance, while his mother let them both in. The two new guests settled down on the couch along with Ash and Delia, and they were back at it discussing Ash and Gary's recent adventures.

"So Gary, what are you doing lately?", asked a curious Ash.

"Oh, just doing more research under Professor Rowan. Who knew that Mount Coronet could be so ancient? We're discovering new ruins and items every day!", exclaimed Gary.

"That sounds great, Gary!", exclaimed Ash's mother, as she got up to get more food for her guests.

"So, Ash, how was Kalos?", asked Professor Oak. "I heard you'd done a lot of big things there from my good friend Professor Sycamore."

"Well, I did come in second in the Kalos League, but I know I'll win the next league I challenge!", exclaimed Ash. "I also had a ton of great adventures with my friends and my Pokemon, which were all really fun.", Ash continued on for the second time that day about the Pokemon he caught, the friends he made, and the adventures he had in the Kalos region.

"My, my, Ash, I never would have expected that! A Greninja that can transform? I've never seen that anywhere in my life!", exclaimed Professor Oak after Ash told him and Gary about his mysterious Greninja that he caught in Kalos.

Meanwhile, Delia had stood up from the couch and had turned the TV on. As she was flipping through the channels, a news report caught her eye. It was Kanto Channel 1 News reporting in its Viridian City studio. On the screen they were showing a breaking news report.

Ash, Gary, Delia, and Professor Oak all stared at the TV, as they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Something was terribly wrong in Pewter City.

* * *

 **November 31, 2002. Pewter City, Kanto. Night.**

"Dragonite, land there."

"Dragoo!"

Once Dragonite was safely on land, the Indigo Champion stepped onto the ruins of what was one Pewter Memorial Park. The center monument and fountain was destroyed, along with most of the park area surrounding it.

Lance looked through the park to make sure to see that everyone there was okay, before he came across two unconscious bodies. He gasped at what he saw. Brock Harrison and Misty Williams were slumped onto the ground.

"Ah… what happened… ?", stuttered Brock, who seemed to have gained back consciousness. He then looked up and saw who was above him. "What the… Lance? What are you doing here?", asked Brock.

"I came as soon as I heard about the explosion. Is Mrs. Williams here all right?", he asked, pointing to Misty, who was still out cold.

"Oh… I'm okay, I think.", answered Misty, as she opened her eyes and sat up. "I still don't know what happened, though.", she continued.

"Well, my agents gave me a report on an explosion in Pewter City, but I think there's something more." Lance thought to himself for a moment, then realized what he was going to do. "You should come with me to Indigo Plateau. You might get targeted again if you stay here. For all we know, this could be an anti-league conspiracy against you. As for your families, I will alert them of the situation, so they will be informed about what's going on."

Brock and Misty looked at the ground, wondering what their families, including Brock's parents and siblings, and Misty's sisters, would think of this.

* * *

What has happened to our protagonists? You'll just have to wait and see! Feel free to review as always, and I don't own Pokemon. Never have, never will.


	3. II - Here Comes Trouble

**The Eighteen**

 **Chapter 3**

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Pallet Town. Morning.**

Was Brock okay?

That was all Ash could think about as he jumped out of bed and made straight for the Ketchum household's videophone. After seeing the news report last night, Ash wanted to talk to his friend really badly, but his mother persisted and sent him to bed. After all, he had just got back home from Kalos that night, and he was definitely tired, but he was worried for his friend. So once he woke up, he put on some clothes, and rushed downstairs to call Brock's Pokegear. He waited for a few minutes until he finally got a response for the other end.

"Ash, is that you?", asked a confused Brock, who was standing on the other end of the call at the Indigo Plateau.

"Yeah. I heard what happened, are you okay?", stammered Ash.

"I'll be fine, same for Misty. We're both at the Indigo Plateau now, actually. Lance wanted to have a witness give a report on what happened because nobody else was there.", continued Brock.

Ash's heart stopped when he heard what Brock had just said. Misty was there? He couldn't bear to think what could have happened to her.

Brock, realizing that his friend was drifting off, decided to change the subject. "Hey Ash, what's wrong? Was it something I said?"

Ash, who had regained his focus, continued the conversation. "No, I just drifted off there for a second. I'm fine."

"Ok. Don't worry about us, though. We'll be safe here at Indigo." Ash nodded and felt glad that they were okay. "Oh, didja want to talk to Misty? I'll bring her over right away."

Ash beamed. He couldn't wait to talk to Misty again, even though the circumstances weren't the best out there. Once she came on the screen, he straightened himself out.

"Hey, Ash! How've ya been!", exclaimed Misty, who was happy that she got to see Ash again.

"I'm fine, but what about you? That must have been horrible. Are you sure you're okay?", asked Ash.

Misty quickly blushed and continued on with the conversation. "I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me. In her head she thought to himself, 'It was nice that he cared, though.'.

"Well, I'm glad that you're safe at the Indigo Plateau. I hope you'll be okay in the long run.", said Ash, who had another blush on his face.

"Thanks, Ash. That really means a lot." Misty turned around to see Lance at the other end of the hall. "Sorry, but we really have to go now, but I'll see you soon!"

Misty hung up the call, leaving Ash back in his house, now even more confused. He had definitely felt different when talking to Misty on the phone just now. It wasn't like anything that he had felt before, especially with Serena. He just couldn't get why.

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Snowpoint City. Morning.**

May yawned as she got out of bed. She quickly got dressed and left her room, only to find Drew and Harley standing at her door. She went up to them, but was surprised when they had stern looks on their faces.

"What's wrong, guys?", May asked. "And where's Solidad?"

Drew and Harley looked at each other sadly, and then turned back to face May.

"Didn't you hear?"

"No, I went to bed early. Did something happen to her?", asked May, who was beginning to panic about what could have happened.

Drew turned around to face May. "There was an attack in Pewter City. Solidad's on the videophone right now, checking with her family."

May froze. Pewter City? That was where Brock lived! "Sorry, I gotta go for a second.", May stammered as she ran past the two Coordinators towards the lobby.

After talking with Brock and Solidad to make sure that they were okay after what had happened, it was time to go to the Contest Hall. There were 64 Coordinators competing in this Snowpoint City Contest, including May. Since Drew, Harley, and Solidad had all earned 5 ribbons and had qualified for the Grand Festival, they were in the stands rooting for May. Except for Solidad, that is, because she stayed at the Pokemon center to call her family. After a few coordinators had gone up for the appeal rounds, it was now May's turn.

"Yeah, May! You can do it!", shouted Drew, while looking down into the stands. Harley watched to himself as Drew continued to cheer on his friend on the Appeal stage.

"Now, Glaceon! Blaziken! Take the stage!"

The clock started ticking down as May sent out her Pokemon with her signature line, as Glaceon and Blaziken exited their Pokeballs with decorative Pokeball Seals coming out as well. Hearts scattered everywhere as the two Pokemon set their feet down on the contest stage.

"Blaziken! Use Fire Spin, and get inside of it!", shouted May.

Blaziken unleashed a fiery vortex that covered up an area of the field and went into the vortex, while Glaceon, on May's command, jumped into the air.

"Now, use Ice Beam on the outer layer!"

Glaceon fired an Ice Beam on the outer layer of the Fire Spin attack, which only froze the outermost layer of the vortex, leaving the rest of the attack still burning.

Drew stared at the battlefield and thought to himself. 'What's she thinking?'

"Glaceon! Icy Wind!"

That Icy Wind attack split the frozen layer into multiple ice shards, and it also froze and broke the rest of the fiery vortex into more flying and sparkling shards.

"Incredible! May's Glaceon manages to pull of an excellent Icy Wind, causing the whole field to be lit up with sparkles!", exclaimed the announcer, Marian.

"Now, use-

The whole crowd became silent all of a sudden. Then, Marian suddenly fainted and hit the ground right on the spot, along with the judges and most of the audience. May looked around the stadium, worried for herself and her Pokemon, and recalled them while Drew ran out of her seat, straight for the battlefield.

"Drew, wait up!", said Harley, as he was struggling to keep up with his fellow Coordinator.

The rest of the audience that was still awake didn't know what to do, so they made a rush for it. Soon, the exits were completely blocked off due to the rush of escaping audience members.

"May! May, are you okay?", asked Drew as he climbed down from his seat.

"Yeah.. I'm fine.", answered May. "Do you have any idea as to what's going on?"

Drew thought for a moment, then answered. "No, not a clue. We should really get out of here, though."

May nodded, and ran towards the exit along with Drew and Harley, which was now open because the rest of the audience had gotten out of the contest hall before. However, they saw Solidad run into the contest hall.

"I came as soon as I heard. Are you three okay?", asked Solidad, with a worried expression on her face.

"Yeah, we'll live.", answered Harley. "Now let's get out of here!"

Once the four Coordinators exited the contest hall, they ran into the city straight for the Pokemon Center. However, the four didn't know the city very well, so it took them awhile to find out which way the Pokemon Center was.

"I heard somebody say that it's this way. Come on!", shouted Harley to the three Contest rivals.

Once they had made it into the Pokemon Center, the four began to relax, glad that the situation was presumably over.

All of a sudden, there was a loud explosion that caused wood and glass shards to be strewn everywhere. The people who were in the Pokemon Center scattered in all directions. Then, a black shadow made its way inside the broken glass windows and into the Pokemon Center, and a 'thump' could be heard inside the building.

May whirled around so see what had made the sound, and she saw that Nurse Joy and a number of other people were on the ground as well.

Harley, shocked by what was happening, decided to go on his own. "Run for your lives!", he cried, sprinting away from the lobby. Solidad stared at him, and started running as well. "Come on!", she cried out back to May and Drew. "Let's go!" May and Drew followed after her, but more windows had shattered, and they couldn't possibly go in that direction with glass shards all over the place.

"Glameow, use Shadow Claw!", another voice rang out throughout the Pokemon Center, and a teenage girl with red hair ran into the lobby. Her Glameow jumped up at the reflector and attempted to use a Shadow Claw attack, but it couldn't touch the shadow at all. Glameow was sent flying back and was recalled by the teenager back into its Pokeball.

"We can't fight back. Now what?", murmured the girl to herself as she recalled her Glameow.

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Celestic Town. Afternoon.**

Cynthia walked out of the Celestic History Museum after doing a routine inspection. Ever since the Team Galactic incident when the Lustrous Orb was stolen here, the G-Men had started to make sure that all the items in the museum were safe and protected from thefts.

As soon as she started to make her way down to her grandmother's house, her PokeNav started to ring. She picked it up and began to answer. "Hello? Cynthia here."

"Cynthia, thank Arceus you're here." She was surprised to hear the voice of Lance, her fellow Champion. She quickly regained her composure and continued the conversation. "What are you calling me for? Did something happen like last night?" When news about the explosion in Pewter City Memorial Park had spread to other regions, Cynthia was devastated that something of this magnitude could have happened under their noses.

"Yes, I'm afraid it's just that. There's been another incident, in Snowpoint City this time.", exclaimed Lance.

Cynthia let out a gasp of surprise. Snowpoint City? She would have to be there immediately. "I'll be there as soon as I can." She hung up and sent out her Garchomp. As she was riding on its back, she was thinking to herself that maybe the incident in Pewter City wasn't a one-time thing.

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Snowpoint City. Afternoon.**

Solidad and Harley stood on the other side of the broken glass as May, Drew, and the red-headed girl continued to stand in front of the shadow. As the shadow focused on these three, the light in the room started to get darker, and the three teens began to hunch over.

Suddenly, a large force rammed into the shadow, and Cynthia Jenness jumped down into the Pokemon Center.

"Garchomp, use Dragon Claw!" Her trusty Garchomp flew in close and slashed his dragon-like arm across the shadow, which seemed to have some sort of solid mass, but it didn't manage to do anything. Then, the shadow disappeared, leaving the Pokemon Center in ruins.

Cynthia's Garchomp managed to destroy the glass shards with Flamethrower, and so Solidad and Harley got back into the main lobby where May, Drew, the redhead, and now the Sinnoh Champion stood. "Thank Arceus you're okay!", exclaimed Solidad, who was happy to see her friends and rivals all right.

Cynthia turned to face the coordinators and the redhead, with a curious look on her face. "Are you all okay there? Do you have any idea what happened?"

Drew took a breath before answering the Champion. "Well, we were here for the Contest scheduled today, but when the power went off and the judges fainted all at once for some reason, we got out and made it here. Then, something attacked us, and then we were trying to fend it off until you got here." While he was saying this, Cynthia was just nodding and taking mental notes of this green-haired teen's explanation.

The redhead girl raised her head at this boy's explanation, and asked a question once Drew was finished explaining what had happened. "So, you were here for the contest? Wait a minute, I recognize you!" The four Coordinators took a step back, knowing what was about to happen.

"You're Drew Hayden and May Maple! And you're Harley Ranells, and Solidad Natochenny too! Hi, I'm Zoey Johnson, also a Coordinator. Won the Sinnoh Grand Festival a couple years back."

"Nice to meet you too, Zoey.", answered May, who shook Zoey's hand in the process.

Cynthia was watching this play out, she had a laugh to herself. People used to do this all the time to her when she was an up-and-coming trainer in the region. "I hate to interrupt this conversation, but I should get around to transporting you to Indigo Plateau. You won't be safe outside, and you might be targeted again, considering the shadow left without doing anything else to you once I entered the building. Also, your families will be alerted of this as well, so you don't have to worry about that."

The five Coordinators nodded and followed after Cynthia, and released their flying Pokemon to take them to Indigo Plateau and to Lance.

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Indigo Plateau. Evening.**

Lance had a confused expression on his face. Another attack had happened, and another group of teenagers were the only source on what was happening. Just what was going on? He had been even more surprised to hear that Cynthia had brought five more people to Indigo with her, and they did provide more information on this supposed enemy, but it was all too unclear to him. Meanwhile, in another room, greetings and theories were both being shared about what had happened.

"Brock? Misty? What are you two doing here?", asked a very confused May. Cynthia had led the group of five to what seemed like a living room, with a couch and a TV, but they were surprised to find two other people there that they already knew.

"Oh?" Brock turned around to see five people staring at him. "Oh, hey guys! Are you okay? Lance told me that there was another attack, and that more people were being sent over here for safety." The five nodded. May looked at Misty for a second, and was about to ask why she was on the phone. Brock realized this and answered. "Misty's on the phone with her sisters. Having them run the Gym is a lot worse, so Misty's setting it all straight for them."

Solidad went and sat down on the couch. After sitting down, she asked another question to Brock. "Now that I know that you're here, is your family okay? I checked with mine this morning, but they were fine." Brock looked at her and continued the conversation. "I talked to them in the morning as well, and they're fine. Nothing to worry about." Solidad nodded and looked back down.

"Well, I wonder what's going to happen to us." Drew's voice rang out in the room, and everyone, including Misty, stared at him.

"You guys have been here since last night, and we just got here now, but it seems like they're going to be keeping us here for a while. I don't know what the Champions are doing, but it doesn't sound good for us to be in here for days, or even weeks."

"Don't worry, Drew, the G-Men are trying to protect us from whatever the hell is attacking us.", finished May. Drew calmed down significantly after May said this, but nobody managed to notice. Then, May's PokeNav started to beep rapidly.

"Sorry, I have to take this.", said May. "Hello?"

"May? Is that you? Are you okay?", came the panicked cries of her younger brother.

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Twinleaf Town. Evening.**

"Hey, guys! Good to see you!", said an enthusiastic Dawn, who had just invited her friends Kenny and Barry into her house. "So, how's it going?", she asked.

"Oh, nothing much, besides getting top 8 in the Indigo League!", shouted Barry. Dawn had heard that Barry was planning to go to Kanto after placing in the Top 16 in the 2001 Lilly of the Valley Conference, she was surprised that he had made it to the quarterfinals this time. "So, how about you, Kenny?"

"Well, I made it to Johto fine, and I managed to get into the Top 4 of the Grand Festival." Kenny competed in the Johto Contest Circuit a year after her friend May did, after following Jasmine on the boat back to Johto on the beaches of Sunnyshore City.

"Hey, did you guys hear about the stuff that's been happening lately? I've been on the internet and some people have been saying that these incidents have been connected!", Barry said intriguingly.

Dawn looked down and sat there in silence. Ever since yesterday, she had been worried for her friends. Since Brock lived in Pewter City, and Zoey lived in Snowpoint City, she was devastated to hear that something had happened in those two places. After placing many phone calls, she was aware that her friends were safe, but that didn't stop her from worrying. How ironic, since her favorite catchphrase was none other than "No need to worry!".

"Barry, I don't know what the hell is going on right now, and there could be any possibility that these incidents are connected, but don't bring this up on Dawn right now. Her friends could have been in danger, and she's really worried about that. We came to help cheer her up, not to make her feel worse!", finished Kenny, who was clearly worried for Dawn.

"No, it's ok. I'm just scared, that's all. Thanks for coming to help. I really appreciate it.", Dawn exclaimed as she stood up. "Now, who wants food?", she exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Food? Oh yeah, I'm starving!", shouted Barry as he ran into the Berlitz residence's kitchen. Kenny brought up the rear, grumbling about Barry being too hyper for his own good.

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Indigo Plateau. Evening.**

"Max? Yeah, it's me. I'm okay, so don't worry.", answered May, who was surprised at how worried her brother sounded over the PokeNav.

"May, thank Arceus! I was so scared when they said the Contest dome in Snowpoint blew up, and I knew you were in there, so I just had to make sure you were okay!", came Max's voice over PokeNav speakers.

"Max, I'm fine. I'm currently at the Indigo Plateau with a bunch of other witnesses. They're planning on interviewing us to see what happened.", exclaimed May.

"Really? I didn't know you were right there when it happened! I was so worried for you, May! I know you're safe now, but call me back when you're done. And call Mom and Dad as well, they're worried too!", and with that, Max hung up the call. May sighed and returned to the couch. She shrugged and tried to come up with an answer to what just went on.

"Sibling love, I guess?"

A while later, all seven residents finished up their business, calling their friends and family and telling them that they were safe from further harm. While the teens were back on the couches, relaxing, they resumed their discussion from earlier.

"Just saying, I find it really strange that we were the only people to know what's going on here.", exclaimed Drew.

"Yeah, it does feel strange. I mean, why go after a bunch of teenagers? We're not that special, are we?, asked Misty.

"I don't know, you guys. For now, let's just see what Lance has to ask us about. We'll figure this out sooner or later.", finished Brock. The six other teens nodded and accepted this decision.

Meanwhile, in the Champion's office at the Indigo Plateau, Lance was in the middle of a very serious conversation with his fellow colleagues.

"I don't know what's going on here, Steven. That's why I brought these kids in, as they're the only source of information I could get, since they were there when these incidents happened."

"I know, Lance, but it seems suspicious that only a few teenagers were the only ones that saw this firsthand. Maybe they were targeted, but I don't know why.", the voice, now revealed to be Steven Stone, Champion of Hoenn, exclaimed.

"The problem is, why would they be targeted in the first place? All of the Teams are either broken or off the radar. Maybe they would want revenge for people who targeted them…", droned Cynthia, the Sinnoh Champion.

Lance's face went a pale white at Cynthia's mention of revenge. His thoughts drifted to Johto, where he had stopped a Rocket incident at the Lake of Rage. He had been aided by three kids in that endeavor. Ash Ketchum, Misty Williams, and Brock Harrison, all from Kanto. They had helped him capture the Red Gyarados and stopped Team Rocket's plans there. Fast forward a year or so later to Hoenn, where he was an undercover G-Men agent in Team Magma. While investigating the situation between Groudon and Kyogre, he came across Ash and Brock again, now with two new faces, May and Max Maple of Petalburg. Again, they helped him to defeat both Teams Aqua and Magma. Heck, that Ash kid even got on the back of a Kyogre! And after hearing reports from Cynthia, Alder, and Diantha, he had learned that Ash had a hand in stopping Galactic, Plasma, and even Flare during the Kalos Crisis. Maybe what Cynthia had just said was true, that somebody from the Teams was out for revenge, and their target was Ash, so why bring their friends into this? He didn't know the answer for sure.

"Lance…? Lance, are you okay?", came the startled reply of Diantha, who was concerned that Lance had been silent for a while.

"No… I'm fine. Just remembered that I had to do something.", answered the Indigo Champion. 'Next stop, Pallet Town.", Lance thought to himself as him and his fellow Champion colleagues finished their call and went their separate ways.

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Pallet Town. Evening.**

Even though Ash was worried for his friends, he didn't show it throughout the entire day. After catching wind of another attack in Snowpoint City, which was where May had called him the day before since he got back from Kalos, he went to the phones and called her. After hearing that they were okay and were in the Indigo Plateau along with Brock and Misty, he relaxed and settled down for the night when the Professor, Gary, and Tracey all came over for dinner for the second night in a row.

They were in the middle of the conversation when the doorbell rang. Delia went to answer it, and came back with a face of shock. Ash, Gary, Tracey, and Professor Oak stared, and wondered as to why the Indigo Champion was in Ash's house.

"I'm sorry to disturb your dinner, but I must talk to Ash. It's an emergency.", exclaimed Lance.

"Why me? Did I do something?", asked Ash, confused as to what Lance was meaning.

"No, not of the slightest. I just had a suspicion, that's all.", answered Lance. "You do know of the incidents in Pewter and in Snowpoint?"

"Yeah, some of my friends were in the area. What about it?", asked Ash.

"You might have been a factor, Ash.", said Lance. That enough was able to send the whole room into silence. The remaining people in the room had shock all over their faces.

"But… How? I know I helped Ash and Cynthia defeat Team Galactic, and he's had trouble with other organizations, but why target a teenager?, asked Gary, who couldn't comprehend the situation.

"I don't know either. Ash, you aren't safe here, and so are your other friends. To make sure of this, I will be nearby for the night. Tomorrow morning, send me a list of the people you want transported to Indigo Plateau along with you." And with that, Lance left, leaving the five people in the Ketchum residence more confused than they ever were.

"I… I don't believe it, Ash. Why would they be after you and your friends?", asked a befuddled Professor Oak.

"Oh Ash, how did this happen! You just came back home, and now you're caught up in even more trouble!", said Delia, with tears in her eyes.

"Mom, Professor, I don't know how this happened, but it's clear that I should be transported to Indigo Plateau along with everybody else, so I should be making that list now.", said Ash, with a look of concern on his face.

"I would really want to help, Ash, but I can't. I have to stay at the Professor's ranch and help care for the Pokemon.", exclaimed Tracey sadly.

"It's okay Tracey, you're still doing what you love.", said Ash, and that made Tracey lift his head up.

"Now, now, Ashy-boy, don't you dare think you're doing this without me!", yelled Gary. "We've been there since the start, and you are definitely adding me on that list!" "You got it, Gary.", said Ash, as he wrote the first name down on his piece of paper.

 _Gary Oak_

"But Gary-", interrupted the Professor, only to be interrupted by somebody else.

"No, Samuel. Let him be. They're both old enough to take part in this, and we can't really stop them now, can we?", exclaimed Delia.

"You're right, Delia. I'm just worried for my grandson, that's all." exclaimed Professor Oak as Gary, Ash, and Tracey went up the stairs to Ash's room, presumably to plan out the list.

"I'm worried for my son too, but they've been fine in situations like these before. I'm sure they'll be fine now as well.", continued Delia.

* * *

The plot thickens! Now Ash is dragged into another adventure with his friends? What will happen next? Tune in to find out! Feel free to review as always, and see you in the next one!


	4. III - New Places, Familiar Faces

**The Eighteen**

 **Chapter 4**

* * *

 **December 1, 2002. Unknown Location. Midnight.**

"Are you sure this is going to work? We've already gave it one dose, and that was more than enough. Are you sure you're not overdoing this?", came the response of a local scientist. The hired scientists were in charge of maintaining and taking care of the subject when it wasn't on missions.

"No matter. At least we have the doses anyway. It's a good thing that our assets from Orre were able to supply us with these.", came the voice of a man hidden in shadow. Said man turned around to face his special council, who were also hidden away from the light.

"Are you sure you'll be able to control it now? The doses might make the subject unstable, according to the data.", said a nasally voice from the other side of the room.

"I second that. What if it loses control and sets itself free? Then we'll have a monster on our hands, and no way to use it anymore!" This voice seemed rather gruff and raspy, but the source was hidden from view as well. The man looked around the room to see if anyone else would continue the debate, but nobody else on the council said anything

Giovanni smiled. These two council members were usually the ones to be on opposite sides of an issue, immediately resorting to fight each other to see which one was right, but now they were finally agreeing on an issue. That was good towards his plans, as if his council could be unified and accepting of his plans, then that would be a giant step towards the whole world unified under him and his council's reign.

But there was one thing that he and the rest of the council members were on the same terms with. He was going to succeed this time around, and he would have to use all his assets to control and use the Blinding One to assume ultimate power.

* * *

 **December 2, 2002. Pallet Town. Morning.**

Ash slowly opened his eyes and sat up in his bed. After the events that made up yesterday's dinner, Ash, Gary, and Tracey started planning on a list of people that Ash was willing to bring to Indigo Plateau to keep them safe from these incidents, if he was ever a factor. Besides adding Gary, Ash had come up with a number of other people to bring to Indigo.

 _Gary Oak - Pallet Town, Kanto_

 _Max Maple - Petalburg City, Hoenn_

 _Dawn Berlitz - Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh_

 _Iris Stevens - Opelucid City, Unova_

 _Cilan Griffith - Striaton City, Unova_

 _Serena Paschall - Vaniville Town, Kalos_

 _Clemont Liscio - Lumiose City, Kalos_

 _Paul Rebolledo - Veilstone City, Sinnoh_

 _Barry Lee - Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh_

 _Ritchie Jayne - Frodomar City, Kanto_

 _Trip McGonnigal - Nuvema Town, Unova_

 _Kenny Hudson - Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh_

After finding out from Lance that Brock, Misty, May, Drew, Harley, Solidad, and even Zoey were reported to the Indigo Plateau, Ash had made his list from there. He had thought about writing down people such as Sawyer or Alain, but he decided that he couldn't put everyone he knew on this list, or else Lance would have trouble tracking everyone down, which he didn't want either.

"Hey, Ash. You up already?"

Ash turned around and climbed down from his bed to face Gary, who had just walked into the room. "Yeah, are you ready?"

"You bet I am." Gary and Ash walked downstairs to the Ketchum's living room, where Mimey was already up, cooking breakfast.

"I don't know about this, Gary. I was looking to settle down around here for a while before I went on another journey, and now I'm dragged into another adventure because bad guys are out for me because of revenge? I don't know what to do, man." Ash was clearly distraught about this whole situation, and he showed that in his words. He didn't know if he wanted to follow through with this, but he didn't really have a choice in the matter, either.

"Don't worry about it, Ashy-boy. We already got into this mess, and we're going to get out of it together.", exclaimed Gary. Ash's spirits lifted once he said this.

"Sure thing, man.", said Ash as he wolfed down his breakfast, while everyone else in the room just sweatdropped at the sight. After Ash and Gary finished their breakfast and went to the Lab to pick up their Pokemon and finalize some handouts and paperwork. Gary chose to take Blastoise, Umbreon, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Arcanine, and Electivire to Indigo Plateau, while Ash took Pikachu, Sceptile, Infernape, Krookodile, Staraptor, and Heracross with him as well. After waiting until the designated time, Ash and Gary stood outside while Lance arrived on his Dragonite to pick up Ash and Gary.

"Ash, please stay safe. I don't want you getting hurt!", said Mrs. Ketchum.

"That goes for you too, Gary! Be safe!", exclaimed Professor Oak.

The two Pallet Town natives nodded and climbed up onto Dragonite's back along with Lance, as they took off towards Indigo Plateau.

* * *

 **December 2, 2002. Twinleaf Town. Late Morning.**

Dawn was relaxing inside her room, until the doorbell rang. As her mother was in Jubilife City for an interview with Jubilife TV, Dawn had to stay at home. She ran downstairs to answer the door, and was subsequently greeted by a stern man in a black uniform.

"...Hello?...How can I help you?", asked Dawn, who was startled by the seriousness of the man standing on her doorstep.

"Dawn Berlitz, I presume?", asked the man. He showed no change in expression when Dawn looked at him and nodded.

"Yeah… that's me. What's going on?"

"Just get into the car, it's for your own good. Don't worry about your mother, she has already been alerted of this.", exclaimed the man.

"Okay…", muttered Dawn as she opened the car door, and was even more surprised to see Barry, Kenny, and even Paul already inside. After regaining her composure, she smiled and sat down. Once the car started to move, the four people began to talk amongst one another.

"So, do you know what any of this is about? It seems really strange that somebody would to this.", said Dawn. Barry looked up with a wild grin on his face, probably ready to spout out some theory he found online about this.

"I told you, this has to do with what happened in Pewter and Snowpoint! I told you they were connected in some way! I knew it!", shouted Barry. Dawn and Kenny fell over anime style once Barry was done explaining his theory.

"Yeah, Barry… whatever you say… ", mumbled Kenny as he sighed to himself.

Paul, who had been silent for the whole ride, decided to speak up. "I don't know what's going on, but you don't have to be so annoying about it.", he said as he looked down. He began to murmure under his breath, but only one word could be made out. "Pathetic."

A while later, the car stopped, and the teens walked out to see Canalave Airport in front of them. The man who had escorted them to the car walked in front of them.

"Come on, we don't have all day. We're going to Kanto."

* * *

 **December 2, 2002. Nuvema Town. Late Morning.**

Trip walked out of his house and towards Professor Juniper's laboratory down the street. He was looking forward to seeing his other Pokemon that were at the laboratory, and getting to spend time with his Pokemon as well. As he walked down the road leading to the lab, he was stopped by a man with sunglasses and a black uniform on. Trip stared at the man, with a confused expression on his face. Then, the man started to speak.

"Trip McGonnigal?"

Trip was confused as to why this man knew his name at first, yet he still nodded his head. He did have a number of questions, though. Who was this guy? And how did he know his name? Was he some kind of stalker or something? Trip didn't know what to think.

"Please, come with me. It's for your own good.", repeated the man.

Trip was definitely feeling a little skeptical after this. This man randomly shows up, asks him to come with him, and now he's saying it's for his own good? Man, that guy must be crazy.

After Trip didn't oblige, the man started to get serious. "Listen, kid. If you want to be targeted by an evil syndicate, then keep going. If you want your butt to be saved, then come with me. Alright?"

Trip stared at the man. If what he was saying was true, and that he would be targeted by somebody, then he would go with the man because he wanted to save his skin. "Okay, fine. I'll go, but do you know where you're taking me?", he asked, as he and the man began to walk behind the car.

"We're taking you and your friends to the Indigo Plateau, in Kanto, for your safety. Don't worry, your parents have been alerted of this occurrence.", said the man.

'The boonies?', Trip thought to himself. 'Now I know that Mom and Dad will be worried.' As he opened the car door, he was even more shocked to find a purple-haired girl and a green-haired boy sitting down. Two people that he recognized.

"Iris? Cilan? What are you doing here?"

* * *

 **December 2, 2002. Pacifidlog Town. Afternoon.**

Serena stood in the Pacifidlog Town Pokemon Center, waiting for her Pokemon to be healed. Even though it had been 3 days since she arrived in Hoenn, she had already taken a boat from Slateport City to Pacifidlog Town, where a Pokemon Contest would be held. After winning her first ribbon earlier that morning, she decided to relax for the rest of the day and to enjoy the island's sights.

Then, the sound of the automatic door opening rang throughout the lobby, as a boy came into the Pokemon Center, completely exhausted.

"Missed… the boat… help… ", stammered the boy as he placed his Pokemon onto the healing counter. Nurse Joy was shocked by that, to say the least. "Okay, your Pokemon will be healed in about an hour. We hope to see you again." The boy then collapsed onto the couch, with complete exhaustion on his face. Serena walked up to the boy, with worry all over her face.

"Are you okay? You seem really tired.", commented Serena, as the boy looked up to acknowledge her.

"Yeah, I'll live. I was trying to catch a boat to island this morning, but I missed it, so then I had to surf on the back of my Wailmer to get there.", said the boy. "I'm Max. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Serena. I got here a few days ago myself. I just won the contest this morning, and now I'm just trying to relax for the rest of the day.", exclaimed Serena.

"Oh, you won the contest? My sister's a coordinator, and she even won a contest here a few years back. It was her last ribbon before the Grand Festival, even.", said Max. Serena perked up at this, as she was surprised that Max knew so much about contests, even though he looked like a rookie trainer.

"Yeah, I got to travel with my sister and a few other friends a few years ago. My sister did contests, while my friend collected Gym badges.", exclaimed Max. Serena's eyes widened at this. Gym Badges? Isn't that what Ash did? Serena shook her head and focused on the conversation, as a lot of people collected Gym Badges, it wasn't just Ash. All of a sudden, a woman with sunglasses and a black uniform walked over to them.

"Max Maple, Serena Paschall, I presume?", said the woman. Serena and Max looked over at the woman, and were surprised that she knew their names.

Suddenly, recognition came to Serena's mind. Maple was the last name of the famous Coordinator called the Princess of Hoenn, May Maple, which Palermo had told her about on the plane to Hoenn. Now, she meets her brother out of nowhere, and then this woman shows up suddenly knowing their names? Something wasn't right here.

"Please, come with me. It's for your safety." Serena and Max stared at the woman, with confusion on their faces. Then, Max stood up, grabbed his Pokemon from the counter, and went with the woman.

"I don't know what this is either, but I better come if I want to find out.", said Max. Serena followed his example by taking her Pokemon back from Nurse Joy and walking out of the Pokemon Center with Max and the woman.

After walking onto the island docks, the woman gestured them to board a small black speedboat with a cover on. Serena and Max walked into the main cabin to find another boy who was older than them sitting on the bench. He had brown hair, but a blue and yellow cap covered most of it. He also was wearing a short-sleeved jacket and jeans with a vest on top. He looked up to see two new faces, and so he stood up and brought out his hand.

"Hi there. I'm Ritchie, nice to meet you."

* * *

 **December 2, 2002. Indigo Plateau. Afternoon.**

Ash sat down on the couch of the living room, along with everyone else at the time. May was talking with her Contest rivals, along with Dawn and Zoey, about contests and how far they had gotten in this contest season. Brock was busy trying to flirt with League officers, but to no avail. Paul was sitting in the corner, away from everything else, and Gary was discussing research topics with Iris, Cilan, and Trip. Dawn left the Coordinators' discussion to talk with Paul for a little, and after a moment of being by himself, Misty came and sat down next to Ash on the couch.

"Ash, are you okay?", asked Misty politely. Ash turned to face her, with a slight smile on his face.

"I'll be fine. It's just weird, you know, that a bunch of bad guys would be after me and everybody else, y'know?" He sighed, and looked back down. Misty's heart thundered in her chest. She had always liked Ash, but the only problem was that he was too dense to notice any hints that she might have been giving.

"I'm sure we'll all be okay, Ash. I know you want to protect your friends, but sometimes things like this happen, and we just have to live with it.", said Misty. She tried hard to hide her blush, but an inevitable red appeared on her cheeks.

Ash looked back at her, his heart beating loudly. "Thanks, Misty. That sure means a lot." he blushed without noticing and smiled, and he started to talk about his Kalos journey with Misty. She seemed really intrigued as to what Ash did during his sixth adventure.

Meanwhile, Brock, who was back after attempting to talk to anyone of the female League Agents, was looking at Ash and Misty talking amongst one another. He sighed to himself. 'Man, she really does still like him after six years. I just hope he can take a hint.', thought Brock to himself.

All of a sudden, another agent walked into the large room, followed by three kids. Clemont, who had just arrived a while earlier, was the first to notice. He turned around and immediately recognized the honey-blond Pokemon Performer behind the agent.

The agent soon spoke up. "Alright, these are the last of them. Everyone is here now." He then left, leaving the three newcomers to stare in shock at what they saw.

"May!", shouted Max as he ran up to his older sister, who wrapped him in a hug.

"Hey Ritchie, how's it going?", said Brock, as he walked up to him with his hand outstretched. Ritchie smiled and shook his hand.

Serena couldn't believe what she was seeing. Not only was May Maple here, so were a bunch of other Coordinators that Palermo had told her about. Drew Hayden, Harley Rannells, Dawn Berlitz, and even Zoey Johnson were all there, in the same room. She then looked around to see who else was there, until her eyes laid on one raven-haired boy on the couch.

"Ash? Is that you?"

Ash turned around to notice Serena staring right at him, her eyes wide in surprise. He stood up and said, "Yeah, I'm here. Nice to see you all got here safely." At hearing this, Serena smiled and ran up to hug Ash, who was startled at her actions. Misty, however, became very angry at this, and was clearly seen trying not to cause an outburst.

Clemont, seeing the commotion, walked up to Brock, who was looking at the scene with a stern face. "Man, so this Misty girl really likes Ash, huh?" Brock turned around and continued the conversation. "Oh, you have no idea how. I traveled with them for two years, and I always knew she liked him, but he was just so dense he never noticed."

Clemont sighed and faced Brock again. "I traveled with Ash, Serena, and my sister Bonnie in Kalos just now. I think that Serena really has a crush on Ash, but he was always dense to notice her hints now."

Brock sighed to himself and began to mumble. "I guess some things never change. Now there's some major trouble here, and I'm not sure if Ash even knows what's going on either."

"You got that right.", exclaimed the Kalosian native.

"Oh! Who are you?", exclaimed Serena, finally noticing Misty on the couch after talking to Ash for a bit.

"I'm Misty. Nice to meet you too.", she said. She was trying her hardest not to freak out right now, especially since this girl obviously liked Ash too. Meanwhile, Ash went up to talk to Ritchie, who had just arrived here.

"Looks like there's trouble in paradise, huh?", asked Ritchie, with a smile on his face. Ash, who was confused by what his friend said, could only think of one response. "What do you mean?"

Ritchie sighed and walked away. "Oh, you'll figure it out soon enough, Ash.", he said as he walked back over to the couch.

A while later, after everyone had introduced themselves to one another, they were relaxing in the room. That is, until Lance and surprisingly Cynthia walked into the room.

"I see that you have gotten to know one another?", said Lance curiously. "Good, now onto business. We have reason to believe that some evil syndicate is on our backs, and their target is you, Ash." Everyone in the room who didn't know that already gasped, shock clearly evident on their faces. "We all know that Ash has experiences with teams such as Galactic and Flare, and this syndicate might be out for revenge on the boy who helped take them down."

Ash looked visibly disturbed at this. "But why get my friends involved at all? These people should have just gone after me when I was alone, then they would have a much easier job."

Lance understood what Ash was trying to say, and he countered with his explanation. "If these people had gone after you when you were alone, then your friends would obviously try and rescue you, so maybe they tried to take out your friends first, then move on to you."

"Oh… I never thought of it that way… ", murmured Ash sadly. Cynthia noticed his and his friends' distress and continued the conversation.

"So that's exactly why we brought you here to Indigo Plateau. You'll be safe while you're here, protected by the League and the G-Men.", exclaimed the Sinnoh Champion.

Ash and his friends perked up at that sentence. They were glad that they could be safe from this syndicate if they stayed here, and that's what Lance was planning on doing for them.

"Now, should I show you all your rooms?", said Lance. The teenagers nodded their heads, excited to find where they were going to sleep. Lance walked out of the room, along with the teenagers.

After the teens the Champions had left the room, one G-Men agent walked into the guest room. She took off her cap to let her bright blond hair curl out.

The agent picked up her custom-made communicator and pressed a button. "This is 009 to HQ. They're all at Indigo.", she said as she waited for a response from the other end. She looked around to see if any more agents were nearby, then returned her focus to the communicator.

"Good. I will send the subject over soon, presumably when they won't expect it.", said the voice. The woman smiled at this. "You got it, Boss.", she said as she closed off the call and put the communicator, which had a small RR engraved onto it, into her jacket.

Domino smiled. These teens had stopped her and her organization for too long, and it was time to make them pay for what they did.

"Woah, this thing's huge!", exclaimed Ash as he looked into his room, which he was sharing with Brock and Misty. There was one full-size bed, and a pull-out couch in the living room. Brock, sensing an opportunity, decided to make a decision.

"Okay, how about I'll take the couch, while you two go sleep in the king-size bed. What do you say?", said Brock as he placed his bags onto the couch. Misty shot a smile at Brock before saying, "Okay!", and dragged Ash over to the bed and put their stuff on it.

After unpacking their bags and settling down for the night, Misty decided to walk out onto the balcony of the room. The view from Indigo Plateau was magnificent, and she could see parts of the Northern Mountains, which separated Kanto and Johto from Sinnoh in the north, and the grasslands of Johto far below. As she heard the sound of the sliding door open, she looked behind her to see Ash walk up next to her on the balcony.

"Hey, Misty.", said Ash. He could feel his heart thunder underneath his rib cage, but he didn't know why.

"Hey, Ash." After pausing for a moment, she continued the conversation. "To be honest, I'm worried too. About the gym… about our families… about us…" Misty's voice became quieter as she continued on, making that last part unable for Ash to hear.

"Misty, I know I'm worried too. Worried about my mom, my life, and even my friends. Including you, Misty. Misty's face went a deep red, and she smiled at him. Even though Ash was too dense for his own good, he could cheer anyone up with his inspirational moments.

"Thanks, Ash. That really means a lot.", said Misty. Ash's face turned a deep red without him noticing, and Misty smiled on the inside. 'Maybe he really does like me back. Too bad he's just too dense to notice it.', thought Misty to herself.

"You're welcome. I'll stay inside for now.", said Ash as he walked back inside the room. Brock smiled at this, as it seemed as if they really did enjoy each other's company, Ash included.

Misty sighed and looked out the window. The sun was just starting to go down, and the sky was now a bright orange. It looked absolutely beautiful. Soon after, her thoughts drifted to the raven-haired boy she was now sharing a room with. She had known Ash since she was ten, and now, six years later, she finally had the courage to tell him that she liked him. She knew she could do it, and she was planning on it.

* * *

 **April 1, 1997. Route 1. Afternoon.**

"Hey, I got a bite! And it's a big one!", shouted ten year-old Misty Williams, as she was fishing on the river on Route 1. She had left the Cerulean City Gym a few months ago to train on her own, and to be honest, it hadn't been going very well. She didn't have many Pokemon on her, and they kept getting hurt when she battled much stronger trainers. But when she pulled out her fishing rod, and a boy came flying out of the water, her whole life was going to change.

"AAAAHH! They're coming back! Run!", shouted the boy. Misty looked towards the waterfall, and she saw a giant Spearow flock coming closer. Just what did this kid do to get them angry? The boy, much to her surprise, climbed onto her bike, placed his Pikachu in the basket, and started to pedal.

"Hey-Wait! That's my bike!", shouted Misty. The boy looked back at her, and said one sentence that would send her across three regions with this kid.

"I'm borrowing this. I'll give it back someday!", he shouted as be pedaled away into the open field. Misty cringed to herself, as now she was going to have to walk to Viridian City!

* * *

 **March 28, 1999. Viridian City Outskirts. Sunset.**

"Ash… will I… see you again?", asked Misty desperately. After traveling around with Ash for two years, she had come to terms that she liked him, but he was too dense to notice that, unfortunately. But since she had to go back to the Gym, it was now or never. She couldn't tell him now, it was already too late for that. But she had one last chance, and that was if she was going to see her best friend again.

Ash nodded his head. "Yes. You will, Misty."

After saying their goodbyes, the trio all went their separate ways, with Ash going to Pallet Town, Brock to see his family in Pewter City, and Misty, who was going to have to take care of the Cerulean Gym while her sisters were away. After that one last question, Misty now knew what she should do. She would wait for a chance to see her best friend again, when they were both older, and then tell him. Who knows, he might even like her back!

"All right, Ash Ketchum. Now I finally know how you feel about me."

* * *

 **December 2, 2002. Indigo Plateau. Evening.**

As she was walking back inside, she could have sworn she saw Serena giving her a death stare in her peripheral vision from one of the other room balconies. 'What's her problem?', she thought to herself as she closed the sliding door behind her.

May was sitting on the bed, flipping through the TV channels. There just wasn't any good shows on right now, and she was swamped trying to find some good networks. After giving up, she laid down on her bed until Drew came and sat down next to her.

"Hey.", said Drew. Despite Solidad's pestering, he really did like May, and he had ever since he met her on Slateport Beach back in the summer of 1999. After seeing May compete in her first Pokemon Contest that day, he knew that she had potential, and that potential made her grow a huge rivalry with the green-haired Coordinator.

"Uhh… hi, Drew.", said May, a blush visible on her face. Drew smiled on the inside. He liked May's optimistic attitude because it was so different from his own, and yet when she became emotional, he couldn't help but like her even more.

"I remember what you said earlier, Drew. About how they might be keeping us there against our will, you know. I don't know if they are doing that or not, either way I'm worried. What if some bad guys come and attack us? What are we going to do?", said May, who had an afraid expression on her face.

Drew smiled and replied. "I was just pointing something out before, and we didn't know that we could have been targeted by some evil team when I said that. I'm sure we'll be fine. I mean, we'll be more safe here than if we stayed in Snowpoint City." In his head, Drew finished his explanation, which was 'And if we were attacked, then I'll protect you.' May looked relieved by what the green-haired Coordinator said, and stood up from the bed.

"Thank you, Drew.", May said, as she went into the kitchen to grab a snack.

"No problem at all."

* * *

 **December 2, 2002. Unknown Location. Night.**

Giovanni turned back to the five other members of his council, who were all ready for another meeting. He began the session by explaining that the subject had been given another dose of the unknown serum which he got from Orre, and explained that it was ready for a larger-scale mission. The council members expressed their gratitude at the news, and soon Giovanni was ready to deliver the greatest report that the team had had yet.

"I have received word from one of my undercover Elites. The teens are at Indigo. All of them, in fact.", explained Giovanni. "I believe a large-scale attack on that poor Champion's headquarters would be sufficient, given that our subject has now been powered up twice now."

"That would be a great idea. If this works, then our only opposition will be gone, and then we can set our plans into motion." This voice was deep and menacing, and the man who said it shared those same characteristics.

"Yes, it would be excellent.", a man said with a British accent. The newest member of this council did not choose to speak up, as he still was new to the whole plan. When Giovanni had bailed him out of prison after he barely survived 100% Zygarde's Core Enforcer attack, the other council members had been planning this for a while beforehand. Now, Lysandre was up to date and ready to execute their plan with the rest of his council members.

"Very well. We shall attack in the morning. They'll all be up and not knowing what will be happening, while we take control and wipe them out!", Giovanni was shouting by the end of his speech, with an insane grin on his face.

Tomorrow, they would alert the world to their presence. Team Rainbow Rocket was here, and they would not stop until the world was theirs, with the help of the Blinding One.

* * *

Hey, the story's actually progressing! I'm sorry if this chapter had too much emotional moments, but I have to throw in character development somewhere! Don't worry though, the next chapter will be chock-full of action, so tune in to find out! Feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	5. IV - Everything Changes

**The Eighteen**

 **Chapter 5**

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Indigo Plateau. Sunrise.**

Ash, who normally slept in on every chance he got, suddenly awoke with a start and sat up in bed. He whirled around the room to check if anything was wrong, and after finding nothing out of the ordinary, laid back down in his bed and tried to sleep. It didn't work, as he still felt a sense of dread that kept him up while Misty and Brock were still sound asleep. As he got up silently and went to the kitchen to eat something, that uneasiness grew, but Ash still didn't know what was going on.

All of a sudden, just as Ash was about to start eating, Misty gasped and sat up in bed, and after hearing a grunt from the other room, it seemed that Brock was awake as well.

"Did you guys feel something too?", said Ash as he walked up to his friends, who were now up and dressed. Misty turned to him, with a suspicious look in her eyes, and nodded her head.

"Yeah, it felt so weird. Almost as if something bad was about to happen.", commented Misty. Brock nodded, signaling that he agreed with Misty's statement.

Ash thought about the situation for a moment, and then pressed his opinion on the topic. "I don't know what the heck that was, but it's probably nothing to worry about. It's not like we can predict the future, can we?", he laughed. Ash turned to open the door, already to see some of the others awake and alert, seemingly aware that something was up.

"Okay, now something is definitely wrong. We have to wake up the rest of the others and alert Lance, even if it's early in the morning.", said Ash, trying not to panic. He went to Misty and brought her out of the kitchen, and they left the room with their bags.

"Guys? You gotta wake up! There's something wrong here.", said Ash, as he opened the door to the room next door to his. As he looked around the room, he saw May and Drew walk towards him, already dressed, while Harley and Solidad staggered, half asleep.

"Huh? What are you guys already up for?", said Ash, who was confused that more people had woken up this early." May and Drew shrugged and looked at each other.

"I don't know, we just felt something strange.", said May, while Drew nodded his head. Ash raised an eyebrow, and turned to Harley and Solidad, who were now dressed, but still looked tired. "I barely got any sleep, and you're waking us up at the crack of dawn? This is so unfair!", complained Harley. Solidad just stood next to him, too tired to say anything.

"Come on guys, we have to warn Lance about this.", said Ash as he walked out of the room, followed by the four Coordinators.

"So you're saying that you all felt something strange and all woke up just now?", said Lance, surprised. "This seems really coincidental, but it's the best chance we've got. If this syndicate chooses to attack us now, we'll be prepared." Everyone except for Harley and Solidad nodded their heads at this. Once Ash, Brock, and Misty had told everyone about the situation, they had all gotten up and went straight to Lance's office.

"For the record, I only got up because Ash here went into the room and started yelling at all of us, and Solidad didn't feel anything strange, either. I can assure you that.", said Harley. Lance nodded. This situation had gotten a lot more extreme, and only in the past thirty minutes, no less. Lance assessed that situation and came up with an idea.

"I'll send agents across the entire perimeter to make sure that something's going on or not. That way, the entire area will be covered and secure.", explained Lance. The teens nodded in agreement as Lance went to the phone to alert his agents.

As Ash and his friends went back to the lounge-like room where they were yesterday, the main focus of their conversations were that weird sense of uneasiness that almost everyone felt.

"I woke up at the crack of dawn, and Brock and Misty woke up later, with the same feeling. It was so weird, you know?", said Ash. The other teens nodded at him. Paul stepped forward and explained his case.

"All I know is that I woke up really early, and then I had the biggest sense of fear that I've ever felt. You know what I mean? Wonder what Reggie's gonna think of this…" he was mouthing his words by the end of his speech, but the rest of the teens still knew what was going on.

Harley turned to Solidad and raised an eyebrow. "I don't know about you, but I never remembered feeling any supernatural fear before, have you?", she whispered, as Solidad stared at her. She nodded and replied with "Yeah. It's weird how everyone seemed to feel this except for us."

A while later, Lance got off the phone, a disturbed expression on his face. He had lost contact with most of the scouts he sent outside the League HQ, and he was worried that something might have happened to them. He went into the lounge to find the teens all laughing and talking, as if they didn't have a care in the world. Man, being a kid was the best part of everyone's life, including Lance, because you didn't have major responsibilities, especially as Champion, to worry about.

"Listen up. I've lost contact with my agents that I sent out, and I'm worried that something has happened to them. You might want to move somewhere safe, as there might be an attack soon.", exclaimed Lance. He was about to explain their plan further before-

BOOOOM!

The loudest explosion the teens had ever heard ruptured throughout the headquarters, and everyone tried to duck for cover in the half-destroyed lounge. Lance ran out of the room to find even more carnage.

The front facade of the building was gone, and there was now nothing in the way of the men in black uniforms and their Pokemon, along with a number of helicopters and an exceptionally large shadow of some sorts.

"Why hello there, Champion. Nice of you to stop by. Now, give us those children!", shouted a heavily British-accented voice from one of the helicopters. Lance cursed to himself, he should have known that Giovanni was behind this.

"Arceus, Giovanni, why do you need those kids? They're innocent!", said Lance, with fury in his eyes. The man in the helicopter stared down at the Indigo Champion, and silently ordered his subject to sneak around and attack the room where the teens were hiding.

"Oh, nothing. Except they're the only threat standing in the way of Team Rainbow Rocket!", he cackled, while Lance looked on in confusion. "Team Rainbow Rocket? That doesn't matter now. Dragonite! Use Twister!", he shouted as he called out his most powerful Pokemon.

Giovanni smirked at the caped redhead. "I think you will find that as your last mistake, Champion." Lance whirled around and faced the building, only to see another set of explosions come from the left side. 'The lounge!', he thought to himself as he raced into the crumbling building atop Indigo Plateau.

"What the hell!", screamed Ash as he ducked underneath a table. In his peripheral vision, he saw Harley and Solidad bolting out of the lounge, while most of his friends remained under some sort of cover. As more and more explosions rocked the plateau, he could only watch himself and his friends cower to protect themselves. After what seemed like a few minutes, Ash calmed down a little bit, and so did everyone else.

"What in the name of Arceus was that!", shrieked Barry, while he was hiding under a coffee table.

"I don't know, Barry, that might have been towards us!", said Dawn, with absolute fear in her eyes. Ash looked at his friends desperately, until he felt a new surge of dread in his body. He looked around the room frantically, and he could see that his friends were all experiencing this feeling too.

"We have to get out of here. Now!", whispered Ash as he got up from his hiding spot. The rest of his friends got up as well, and ran out of the room and into the main hallway. Through the hole in the front of the building, they saw Lance, Harley, and Solidad being cornered by a bunch of people in black uniforms with an RR engraved on the front, and a man in a black suit in a helicopter.

He eyed them for a second, with a malicious grin in his eyes. The teens tried to run away, but were stopped in their tracks by-

BOOOM!

Another enormous explosion rocked the headquarters as the teens were slammed around by the blast. Lance, who was having trouble holding back the Grunts along with his Dragonite, looked around to see Ash and his friends struggling to get up after that last explosion.

He sent out the rest of his Champion-level Pokemon that he used in official matches, and commanded them to help Dragonite in stopping the Grunts, and ran over to the shell of what was the Indigo League HQ, towards the kids he had put in even more danger than before.

Ash looked over to see Lance's Pokemon holding back the assault, and the man in the black suit just standing in the back, with a Persian next to him. That man did seem familiar, and the Persian helped that case. All of a sudden, he saw Lance running towards him and his friends, who were just starting to get up from that last explosion.

"Listen. You have to run! They're all after you, and I can't hold them back much longer. You can go west to Johto, to the Dragon's Den. Clair would be able to keep you safe. Now go!", said Lance, as he rushed back around to the courtyard, which was now destroyed, to hold back the men.

Ash turned to his friends, who were all standing up and in one piece. They looked at him, and Ash said two words.

"Let's go." The teens ran as fast as they could through the half-destroyed hallway, and once they were at the exit, they bolted towards the nearby forest that led to the Northern Mountains. Once they were in the clear, they hid behind trees and watched what was happening.

"Dragonite, use Hyper Beam!" The yellow beam cut through the advancing enemy Pokemon, causing most of the Grunts to retreat. Giovanni, however, seemed to have been updated on the situation, and retreated back into his helicopter. The shadow that had set off the first few explosions also went back to Giovanni. He smirked at Lance one more time before pressing a button.

KA-BOOOOM!

What was left of the building now exploded into nothing but ruins and dust, leaving the Indigo Plateau destroyed. Gone were the Indigo G-Men's inventory, Lance's Champion files, and the supervision of the Indigo League as a whole.

As Giovanni and his Rainbow Rocket Grunts flew away, Lance sat down, a bewildered expression on his face.

He had failed.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Pallet Town. Morning.**

Delia Ketchum was busy gardening with Mr. Mime early when she heard the phone ring inside the house. She dropped what she was carrying, leaving Mr. Mime to catch all of her gardening supplies, and ran inside towards the videophone. She picked up on the third ring, a smile on her face, only to be greeted by a greatly disturbed Samuel Oak.

"Samuel? What's wrong? Is something the matter?", she said, worried about the Professor.

Professor Oak took a deep breath and delivered the soul-crushing news. "There was an attack at Indigo early this morning. Lance was right, they were after Ash. They destroyed the G-Men headquarters, and Ash, Gary… they can't find them. I'm sorry, Delia.", said Oak, looking down at the floor.

Delia looked shell-shocked at this news. She expected Ash to be okay, and she didn't expect it to be this bad for the region as a whole. Now her son was missing, maybe even dead. Her beautiful morning was ruined. She collapsed onto the couch with tears in her eyes. Mimey, seeing that she was hurt, ran inside the house to comfort her.

"Mimey? Oh, I'm fine. I just have to get some air… ", droned Delia as she left the house and started to walk around town, not knowing the fate of her only son.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Petalburg City. Morning.**

Caroline came back inside the gym after feeding her Pokemon in the greenhouse. It was a beautiful morning in Hoenn. The sun was shining, Tailow were chirping, and it just looked plain peaceful outside. She decided to join her husband in the living room, while he was flipping through channels on the TV. He stopped at the Mauville TV news station, where there seemed to be a breaking news report.

" _Breaking News."_ , said the reporter. _"The Indigo Plateau G-Men headquarters has been destroyed by a force that suspects are referring to as RR. We don't know what it means, but we'll keep an eye out to all our viewers once we get more information. Lance, the Indigo Champion, declined to comment on the issue at the moment, but he and the other regional Champions will be giving an address to the nation later today. Once our reporters investigated the situation, they discovered that the building had been completely destroyed, and there were no other survivors located in the area that we know of."_

Caroline dropped her coffee, and the mug hit the ground with a crash. Norman turned around, about to burst into tears, and started to talk to his wife.

"Arceus.", he muttered. Caroline was feeling the same shock as her husband was, knowing that their children could be in danger.

"We left our kids there to make sure that they stayed safe, and now they're just gone?", he cried. "Why!" Norman wasn't a very emotional man, but the sadness and anger that came with not knowing his children's fate made him sob into his wife's arms.

Caroline tried to comfort her husband as best as she could, but she too felt great sadness for the loss of her son and daughter.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Veilstone City. Morning.**

Reggie opened the door to his house to see his girlfriend Maylene, the Gym Leader of Veilstone City, at the front porch. They had begun dating after Paul's top 8 finish in the 2001 Sinnoh League, and they seemed like a great couple together. He invited Maylene into the house that also served as his own Pokemon breeding center, and they began to talk.

"I don't know about this, Reggie. I just think it's too early to get married now. And besides, we should at least delay talking about this until Paul gets back from the Indigo Plateau. He should be here to witness this.", said Maylene, with a serious expression on her face.

Reggie nodded his head. "Ok, I'll do that. Once Paul gets back, of course."

Maylene smiled at her boyfriend, before her PokeGear started to ring. She answered on the second ring and paused to answer it. Reggie sat at the table, waiting for Maylene to finish the call.

After a few seconds, her face turned pale, and her eyes widened. "Arceus.", she muttered underneath her breath. Reggie went to leave the room because this felt like serious business. Once he heard Maylene hang up her PokeGear, he went back to the living room.

"What's wrong?", asked Reggie, who could see the fear in his girlfriend's eyes. Maylene, who looked very hesitant at first, but finally spoke.

"Reggie, Cynthia called. She said… she said there was an attack at Indigo." Reggie gasped. "The whole G-Men headquarters was destroyed, they couldn't find any survivors…", Maylene muttered, her head facing right down on the ground.

Reggie was overcome with shock. What about Paul? He had sent his younger brother to Indigo in order to keep him safe, but that just put him in more trouble, and now Reggie didn't know if he was alive or not. Reggie had always cared for Paul, and he knew that even though Paul didn't show it, he cared for his brother as well.

Reggie went up to Maylene and put his arms around her. "It's okay. Paul's gonna be okay. At least I still have you.", he muttered as he wrapped his girlfriend in a hug. Maylene smiled, at least Reggie was there to care for her right now, when she needed it the most.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Somewhere north of Indigo Plateau. Late Morning.**

Misty looked on at the utter destruction of the building that they were sleeping in only a few hours before. They were extremely lucky that they got out of there in one piece, but not everybody was one hundred percent mentally. Misty knew it, and everybody else knew it.

This would be on the news by now, and everyone probably thought they were missing, or dead. Now, they were on the run from some evil team, and they had to survive in a world where everyone doesn't think that they're alive,

"What are we going to do now?", asked Ritchie. "We still have our Pokemon, but we shouldn't be out in public, if we get attacked again. Lance said that we could to to Johto, so that's our options."

Ash stood up and began to speak. "I don't know about going to the Dragon's Den. If Clair finds us, she might become another target by this team. I think that we should avoid going out in the open so that nobody else gets hurt."

Most of the teens nodded their heads, showing that they agreed with what Ash said. Drew spoke up next, however. "I don't think we should go west at all. Johto is largely grassland, so it would be hard to make it to Blackthorn without getting spotted."

"Drew's right. If going west is a bad idea, then I say we go east. There's lots of mountains to the north, and we have enough traveling experience to take it on", exclaimed May.

Paul decided to continue the conversation. "Okay, east it is. Now, we should get going before anyone else finds out that we're still here." The gang began to walk eastward.

I think we made the right choice here. If we go to Blackthorn, then this group will also be able to blow up a big League area and target us as well. East it is, gang.", commented Brock. The others nodded their heads at this statement.

"Well, let's get going, then! What do we have to wait for!", said Ash, as he started to run in front of the group, not before tripping on a branch and face-planting into the ground.

"I think we're going to see a lot of that here, Ashy-boy!", said Gary as he was trying not to fall on the ground in laughter.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Blackthorn City. Late Morning.**

"Lance! Thank Arceus you're okay!", came the voice of his cousin Clair, leader of the Blackthorn Gym. Lance had just landed outside the entrance to the Dragon's Den, located north of the main city area. He smiled when he saw his younger cousin and Gym Leader run up to him and wrap him in a hug.

"What the hell happened, Lance! You had me really worried there, you know!", said Clair in an impatient voice. Lance sighed and began his explanation. "Giovanni happened, Clair. He took his grunts and stormed the place, and the kids had to escape."

Clair gasped. "What will those kids do? I recognized some names on that list, and it would be terrifying to see that they were dead. Ash and his friends are a good bunch.", said Clair.

Lance sighed. "Giovanni basically blew up the whole headquarters, so he probably thinks those teens are dead, too. The best way to protect them from Rocket is to say that they're dead to the public."

I directed them to come to Dragon's Den, as I know you'll help them out. But if they don't decide to come here, they're on their own. I have to lead two regions from here now. It's the safest place I can be.", said Lance. Even though lying to these teens' families and the rest of the world was unethical, it would protect them from Giovanni and his forces as a result, so he was willing to take the backlash from angry families and reporters. Clair understood what Lance was trying to do, as it was the right thing to do to protect them from Giovanni and his Grunts.

Suddenly, he turned around to see a G-Men jet land right near him. As he looked towards the plane, he could see Steven Stone, the Hoenn Champion, running out to greet him. "Lance, wow. I just got your message, so I had to get here as fast as I could. Will you be calling everybody else? The public at least deserves to know what happened.", said Steven.

Lance looked into his colleague's eyes, and came up with a solution. "Yes. Call the other Champions, and schedule a press conference in an hour. The public needs to know what is at stake."

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Unknown Location. Late Morning.**

"Hey Boss, how did the mission go?"

The trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth were the first to greet Giovanni and his Grunts after the mission on Indigo Plateau, with their new white RR uniforms. After returning from Kalos to report back to Team Rocket, they were surprised that he had revamped their headquarters, and aligned himself with even more assets to create Team Rainbow Rocket. So far, the trio had only worked in the Rocket sector of the headquarters, so they hadn't managed to see who else was operating with the Boss behind the scenes.

"The mission was successful, and those pests are not around to stop me anymore.", said Giovanni without even looking at his subordinates. He then walked away, towards his office on the top floor.

Later, the trio was walking towards the common room, where all the grunts hung out when they weren't on missions. James took a glance at a nearby TV, and was watching the breaking news report. He nudged Jessie, who also turned to look at the screen, along with Meowth.

" _Thank you for being with us in this tough time. Our regional champions will now be giving an address to the entire nation about this attack. Here is Lance, the Indigo Champion, live from Blackthorn City."_

Lance took the microphone and began to speak. _"This has been a very long day for the Indigo Province and its allies, as Indigo Plateau has been struck down in a major terrorist attack. Our agents have presumed that Team Rocket was in charge of destroying the Indigo G-Men headquarters, and it was they who left no survivors besides the ones that escaped beforehand. Our forces were in charge of protecting twenty teenagers who were suspected to be targeted by Team Rocket. Only two made it out alive. We will now read aloud the names of the people who have lost their lives due to our mistakes as leaders of your nation."_

" _Ash Ketchum… Misty Williams… Brock Harrison… May Maple… Max Maple…"_

James whirled around to face his partners in crime. "Those are the twerps! He killed them all!", he said. Jessie and Meowth listened to the Champion in awe, and turned back to James, shock all over their faces.

" _Dawn Berlitz… Barry Smith… Kenny Hudson… Paul Rebolledo… Iris Stevens… Cilan Griffith… Serena Paschall… Clemont Liscio… Ritchie Jayne… Trip McGonnigal… Gary Oak… and Zoey Johnson."_ While Lance was listing off names, images of the trainers appeared on the screen next to him. Lance soon left, handing the mic over to Cynthia.

" _This has been a tough time for you all, and we share the same feeling. We have failed you as a governing body, and as protectors of our regions. All of us, the Champions of each allied region, fully take responsibility for these attacks and the lives that have been lost because of these acts of terror that we allowed to happen."_ Steven Stone began to speak, but an Admin changed the TV channel to show updates on Rocket missions.

The trio didn't know what to say. They had been following these kids for the past six years, just because a rookie trainer and his Pikachu threw them out of the Viridian Pokemon Center in 1997. And just like that, their boss just goes and kills them all.

"Wow… I didn't know Giovanni could be that ruthless… what did he want with the twerps anyway?", said Jessie.

James spoke up, and said "I have no idea. It doesn't really matter anyway, since they're gone and all. You know, we chased after Pikachu for six years, as if that was our only direction in life. Now, the twerp who had that Pikachu and all his friends are dead. What are we going to do now?"

"I know what we're going to do, James! We're going to work our butts off until we get a promotion, and serve Team Rainbow Rocket! That's what we're going to do!", exclaimed Jessie. She was always the most passionate one about serving their organization, and that didn't change now.

James and Meowth nodded their heads. "You're right, Jess. Forget I even said that earlier. Now, let's work until we get what we deserve!", said James.

"That's right!", finished Meowth.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Blackthorn City. Afternoon.**

"Diantha, what do you have to say about this issue?", asked a reporter. The Champions had came to Blackthorn to deliver their address to the nation and warn everyone about what had happened earlier that day, and to make sure that the teenagers would manage to get to the Dragon's Den safely. Meanwhile, the press was eating the storyline up, and that had helped with their cover-up operation to protect the teens from Giovanni, who was now revealed to be the mastermind behind this "Rainbow Rocket" syndicate.

"My opinion is that we have lost a great many trainers who have been important to our regions and to our united nation as a whole, and we as leaders will try to learn from our mistakes and stop Team Rocket from causing more tension in our nation.", exclaimed the Kalos Champion. As Diantha kept talking, Steven turned to Lance and began whispering in his ear.

"What are we going to do now? I know the rest of us need to go back to our regions, and Wallace can stay as our public ambassador, but what about you? Will you stay here with Clair and lead the G-Men from here?", asked Steven. Lance turned to his colleague, eyebrow raised, and thought of a plan.

"Well, I was planning on staying here with Clair, to lead Kanto and Johto from a safe place, but also to make sure that those kids make it to Dragon's Den safely. I told them to go there if they were able to get out safely.", Lance whispered as quietly as he could.

Steven nodded, and took a mental note of that. As he turned away from the Indigo Champion, he noticed that the reporters were all still there, nobody leaving without wanting to get a good story first. Cynthia and Diantha were still busy answering questions, and Wallace had just gotten in from Hoenn, and it took him a while to get ready before a press conference.

Alder, however, had already answered questions from the reporters, and it had not gone well. He kept getting distracted by the people in the audience, leaving the reporters offended and confused. Lance had always thought that the Unova Champion was lacking in the leadership department, to be generous, or just lacking in every part of a social life except for battling.

Lance sighed. Even though Alder could act strange at times compared to his younger, more serious colleagues, the rest of the Champions would have to live with his antics until he left his position of office.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. North of Indigo Plateau. Afternoon.**

"Very funny, Gary.", Ash mumbled as he slowed down to rejoin the group. After walking along for a bit, Brock came up to join him. "Ash, how've ya been? I've been meaning to ask you about Kalos, so how did it go?", asked Brock.

Ash smiled and started his discussion. "Kalos, was fun, besides the whole Team Flare part. I got the farthest I ever did in a league, and I had a great time with my friends." As Ash kept explaining, Brock smiled on the inside. It was always great to hear someone talk about their journey, and having Ash talk about his reminded the old Pokemon Doctor of the good old days with Ash and Misty.

"Well, I did manage to watch some of the Kalos League, and it was nice to see you compete. By the way, what was up with your Greninja? I've never seen anything like that before!", said Brock. Ash smiled and answered. "Well, I got him as a Froakie after he was abandoned by a bunch of trainers, and after he evolved it turned out we had some special bond that made him do that!", he said enthusiastically. Brock laughed on the inside. Typical Ash, getting himself into some weird situations almost all the time.

As Ash was talking to his old friend, the rest of the group was going at their own pace. Serena stayed as far away from Misty as she could, getting strange looks in return. She was currently talking to Clemont at the moment. Zoey was chatting with Kenny, presumably about the upcoming Contest season, and Ritchie, Barry, and Trip were all next to each other, in the middle of a deep conversation. At the front of the pack were Paul, who had been silent for most of the trip so far, and Dawn, who was trying to catch up to the purple=haired trainer.

"Paul, wait up!", said Dawn, as she staggered over to him. Paul stopped and turned to face the Coordinator. "Why are you so far ahead? You could get lost, you know!", said Dawn, still trying to catch her breath. Paul's face remained emotionless, and he answered the bluenette's question.

"If you really want to know, I'm just trying to make my own way here. Alone.", explained Paul. He turned back around and started to walk before Dawn went in front of him.

"Well, you can see that we're all alone right now in the middle of nowhere, and we've just been attacked by some evil group. So at least try to stick with the rest of us, wouldn't you?", said Dawn. Paul shrugged, and walked again, at a slower pace this time.

Drew was observing the scene at the front and turned to May. "What is she trying to do? I would just leave him be. Besides, he's basically been non-existent this entire time!", said Drew. May nodded. "Let her do what she wants. I don't know Paul very well personally, but I heard from Dawn that he tends to keep his emotions under wraps most of the time."

Drew smirked and flicked his hair. "Well, that's the understatement of the year, June.", he said, and he watched as May turned bright red and she whisper-yelled in his face.

"My name is May, you got that! You've known me for three years, and you still like to call me by the wrong name! What is it with you!", cried May, while Drew maintained his smirking expression. Everyone around the two coordinators sweatdropped, and soon went back to their own conversations, while continuing their trek eastward.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Unknown Location. Afternoon.**

"Now that those teenagers are out of the way and Indigo is compromised, we can now move on to Phase Two of Project RR. Even though we have a portion of the subject at our disposal, we will be able to make it more powerful and completely under our control.", commented Giovanni to his council. Giovanni had returned from his successful mission in high spirits, and was busy preparing for the next phase of his plan.

He stared out into his main council chamber. The room was designed like a courtroom, where Giovanni sat at the top while his council members were arranged across the room in a circular shape.

"What does Phase Two involve, sir? According to my calculations, you haven't told us anything about your next stage of Project RR." came a deep voice from one of the council chambers.

"Yeah, now that those nuisances are out of the picture, what are we going to do?" This loud voice came from the chamber right next to the deep-voiced man, and those two were constantly arguing when Giovanni was not around. Giovanni smirked at his council members, and spoke aloud.

"All will be revealed when the opportunity presents itself. Now take your assigned positions, and monitor them. We will continue this discussion once the world is ours.", said Giovanni. His mind was racing, thinking of the infinite possibilities that he could have if his plan succeeded.

"Yes, sir!", shouted the council members. Giovanni looked down at his new team. He had managed this in all of a few months, while the rest of the world was focused on Kalos and their issues with Flare. He would have to thank Lysandre for that someday, when he ruled the world along with his council. For now, his plan was still in its infancy, but he knew that he would succeed, and the world would bend to his will.

* * *

Well, here we go! Even though our heroes are now on the run, their adventure has only just begun. Feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	6. V - A New Journey

**The Eighteen**

 **Chapter 6**

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Blackthorn City. Night.**

"I can't believe this! Like, you just put my sister in even more danger! How could you!", shouted a voice over the phone.

Lance sighed. People were calling the Champions left and right about this worldwide issue. From grieving families to angry adults and trainers, it just didn't let up. Dealing with Daisy Williams over the phone was the least of the Indigo Champion's worries, but he still had to deal with it and the other amounts of phone calls the Champions received almost every hour.

After talking to the oldest Sensational Sister of Cerulean, she hung up the phone and went back to work. Giovanni was still on the loose, and it was the G-Men's number one priority to track him down.

Lance heard a noise from his PokeNav, and he looked it up to find a missed call. The families of the reportedly dead teenagers had pledged for a mass funeral, and the champions had all agreed. It was only fair that these kids would get a proper "funeral" after the way that they "died". The Champions were now in the midst of planning the funeral, and a site was being decided as well.

This message was from Samuel Oak, suggesting that the funeral should be held at Pallet Town Cemetery. He reclicked the number, and after a few seconds, found himself seeing the famous Pokemon Professor across the screen.

"Hello, Samuel. I see that you want the funeral to be held in Pallet. Why is that?", asked Lance.

"It's just that I know Giovanni wanted those kids, especially Ash… he lived here… with Gary… and it would be fitting for that. I'm only suggesting the idea, one of my assistants came up with it. Please consider.", said Oak as he disconnected from the call.

Lance returned to his office with a plain expression, and contacted his colleagues. All six of them were stationed in Blackthorn City, while the Elite Four of the regions maintained watch over their regions while the Champions were here in Johto.

The League hadn't decided to postpone League events and matches until it was absolutely necessary, and the Champions also needed Mr. Goodshow's approval to set that into motion.

Wallace was the most busy with calls. Even though he shared a joint role as the Hoenn Champion, with Steven doing the battling and Wallace doing the public events and marketing, he was also a commander of the G-Men, and he was very much involved with RR at this point. Trainers, Coordinators, and adults were calling the famous Top Coordinator almost every minute. As he hung up from his latest call to enjoy his next minute of salvation, he heard the door open. He turned around in his chair to see Lance beckoning him out of the room. He stood up, straightened his outfit, and walked out of the room. As he shut the door, he could hear the phone ring, but he wasn't going to answer it this time.

"So, what is it, Lance? Any updates?", asked Diantha.

"Yes, in fact. Samuel Oak recently called me, to suggest that the memorial be held in Pallet. How do you feel about this?", exclaimed Lance.

"If I'm not mistaken, Pallet is where Oak's grandson lived, along with Ash.", commented Cynthia. "I think it seems right. Giovanni was after Ash and his friends, so we have a memorial in his birthplace. It makes perfect sense.", said Cynthia. The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement.

"Any objections?" Nobody said anything. "Very well, then. I'll call Pallet Town Cemetery shortly. We better prepare for this, the press will most likely be on our backs again.", said Lance plainly.

Alder sighed. Back in his day, the press wasn't that focused on politics and the government, but now all their direction was focused on the six of them, and if they could rebound and retake command of their regions. He knew that they all had made a mistake that cost many people their lives, but these reporters were just infuriating sometimes, and he was pretty sure his fellow Champions and leaders believed the same was true for them too.

* * *

 **December 3, 2002. Somewhere northeast of Indigo Plateau. Night.**

"Oh come on, Dee Dee! Spill it!", shouted Kenny. The rest of the group stared at the Coordinator, but didn't say anything to his face. Dawn and Kenny had been in a heated debate for the past few minutes, causing others to wonder what was going on. Iris raised an eyebrow, and turned to Zoey, who was sighing in exasperation.

"What's Dee Dee? Is that a nickname or something?", asked Iris. She had met Dawn before in Undella Town, but she never heard anything like that from Dawn before.

"Oh, it's just an old nickname from when Dawn and Kenny were kids, that's all.", explained Zoey. Iris nodded and started to walk in front of the Coordinator. Dawn and Kenny's conversation returned to normal, and the group continued east without any problems, until Brock suddenly stopped in a clearing.

"All right, guys! Who's up for some food!", said Brock, as he began to take out his cooking supplies. The group cheered and went to the clearing, and began to set up camp while Brock cooked.

Clemont, after finding a nice place to set up shop, tilted his glasses towards the sun with a big grin on his face

"Clemontic Gear, On!", he shouted as his backpack opened up and his Aipom Arm dragged out a package that soon grew into a portable tent. He smirked and opened the tent door, while everyone just stared.

"Okay, what just happened?", asked Dawn.

"Oh, it's nothing. Clemont does these things all the time! It really helped out back in Kalos.", said Ash. The group began to set up their own camps, with Ash and friends taking out their sleeping bags and preparing for the cold night ahead. Winter was fast approaching, and the temperatures were dropping as a result. Once everyone was set up for the night, they all gathered around Cilan's portable table and began to eat.

"I must say, Brock, this recipe is one of the finest I've ever tasted!", gushed Cilan, who was in delight. As a Pokemon Connoisseur, he had to eat only the finest recipes out there, and Brock's dinner was nothing short of that.

"Oh, whatever. Just eat the food already.", chuckled Iris to herself as she playfully elbowed Cilan in the forearm.

Meanwhile, after everyone had finished eating, the group gathered in their tents and sleeping bags for the night. Clemont had brought spare supplies in his backpack, and the others were glad to see that they all had an insulated tent to sleep in.

"Okay… let's see… I've got it!", said Clemont, who was smirking. "Here are the tent arrangements!"

 _Tent 1 - Ash, Misty, Brock_

 _Tent 2 - May, Drew, Max_

 _Tent 3 - Dawn, Barry, Kenny_

 _Tent 4 - Iris, Cilan, Trip_

 _Tent 5 - Serena, Clemont, Zoey_

 _Tent 6 - Gary, Paul, Ritchie_

The others smiled and began to climb into their tents. Since it was getting pretty late out, the group decided to sleep for the night. It had been a very long day for them, and they just hoped that everything could return to normal.

Brock couldn't sleep. He didn't know why, but he just couldn't do it. He looked next to him, and saw Ash and Misty both sound asleep, with snoring coming from Ash's sleeping bag. 'Just like old times… ', he thought as he sat up in his sleeping bag.

Suddenly, he saw a gleam of light from the outside and covered his eyes. He looked through the door to see Drew shining a flashlight at him. He got his shoes and jacket on, and opened the tent door, being careful not to wake up Ash and Misty.

"Couldn't sleep, huh?", asked Drew.

Brock nodded. "Yeah. It's been a rough few days. Changes everything."

"Yeah. I can't believe this is happening. It feels okay in the moment, but now… I don't even know what to think.", said Drew.

"A week ago, we were all doing our own things, until this mess happens. Now, we're all in the middle of nowhere, heading east. Really messes up your plans for everything, right?", said Brock. The two were walking, until they came across the clearing where they had originally ate a few hours earlier. A few people were already there, such as Gary, Paul, Ritchie, and Trip, and they were all sitting on fallen tree trunks around a small fire. Brock and Drew went over to the boys and sat down next to them.

"Hey, Brocko, Drew. Couldn't sleep either?", asked Gary. They nodded, and stretched their legs out. Clemont's tents might have been good for insulation, but space was not one of the tents' greatest qualities.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, Brock. I remember that Lance mentioned that this group might have been targeting Ash and the rest of us because we knew him. Have you known anything that Ash has done in order to make those guys target Ash for some reason?", asked Gary.

Brock thought for a few seconds, then raised a finger in acknowledgement.

"Well, I did travel with Ash for almost five years, and we did get ourselves into lots of situations, such as stopping Aqua and Magma in Hoenn along with May, Max, and Lance, ending Galactic along with Cynthia and Dawn… maybe that could be a factor… ". The rest of the room stared in shock at the Pokemon Doctor.

"Seriously? I was at Lake Valor when that airship crashed dead on into the lake! Then I hear from Rowan that Galactic was gone, but I never expected it to be you guys!", said Gary in astonishment.

Brock laughed. "Well, that's just being around Ash. We've been through many adventures together, good or bad.", said Brock.

"Okay… what else did you manage to get into?", asked Trip, who seemed interested about the topic.

"Well, let's see… have you heard something about Greenfield, Johto? Arborville? Alto Mare? How about Forina? Larousse? Oh, and don't forget about Alamos Town and Crown City, either. Those were something, alright." He finished to see the other boys motionless, jaws open.

"Yeah… I've seen them all on the news. You're telling me that you and Ash… you did all that?", asked Gary. Brock nodded his head, causing the others to fall over.

Brock was leaving out some careful information in his explanation, because nobody knew about Minchina, Queen Ilene would definitely find out if he spilled the beans about their Rota adventure, and Mewtwo would probably kill him if he told the gang about what happened on Mount Quena.

"Okay, I guess we're in for it now. How about we change the subject?", asked Paul, eager to switch conversations as soon as possible.

"Okay, fine. I have to ask, what's going on with Ash and Misty? And that Serena girl too?", said Drew. Brock sweatdropped, as this was going to be a long explanation.

"Well, I met Ash when Misty was following him. He had stolen and crashed her bike on the first day of his journey, and she was going to follow him until he paid her back. Soon after, they became tolerable to each other, and Misty seemed to care about him alot. Ash was always dense, especially when he was younger, and Misty seemed to get angry a lot when he didn't take any of her hints. I really think she likes Ash, but he's just too dense to ever notice.", Brock said.

Gary sighed. "Well, Ashy-boy was always dense, especially when we were younger. But now Misty's got competition, huh?", said Gary.

"I guess so. From what I heard from Clemont, Serena's had a crush on Ash for a very long time… he said they met at some summer camp or something… ", said Brock.

Gary suddenly lit up, eyes widened. "That's it! I knew that Serena girl looked familiar! She was the one at my gramps' summer camp back when we were six years old! Oh wow, Misty's in for it now!"

"Huh? What do you mean, Gary?", asked Ritchie.

"Yeah, and could you lower it? We don't want to wake anyone else here, don't we?", asked Trip.

"I'm going back. See you all in the morning.", said Paul, as he walked back to his tent. As he was walking, he wondered about what he was going to do with the others.

'Could these guys be my friends? For real?', thought Paul. He had always traveled alone, and this whole mess was only a minor setback. He would be back, alone, and ready to win a league. He was sure of it. He zipped open the tent door, set himself down in his sleeping bag, and began to sleep.

"Gary, what were you yelling about back there?", asked Brock. Ritchie and Trip had left for their own tents, making sure not to disturb anyone else who was sleeping. Now, it was just Drew, Gary, and Brock around the fire, which was slowly burning out.

"So, my gramps would run a summer camp back in Pallet Town for a week, and Ash and I always went there. One year, there was this girl from Kalos, and I remember Ash walking out of the woods half an hour after our orienteering exercise had ended, along with that girl. He told me later that he got her out of the woods by himself, but of course I didn't believe him. I guess I was wrong, then.", said Gary.

"Wow. If Serena has liked Ash since they were young, then Misty's in very hot water, along with Ash. He has to choose somebody, or he'll be too dense to notice it.", said Brock.

Gary chuckled. "Man, Ashy-boy is in for the time of his life."

Drew raised an eyebrow. "Is Ash really dense to not notice anything like that? I haven't traveled with him before, so I don't really know."

"Oh, yeah. He never notices any kind of stuff like that.", said Brock. At that moment, the fire completely burned out, leaving the three boys in the cold night.

"Okay, I'll go back. See you guys in the morning.", said Brock, as he stood up and stretched.

"All right, Brock. See ya.", said Gary.

"Yeah. It was great talking to you, man.", said Drew. The three walked back to their tents, leaving the clearing empty and trying not to wake the others.

Drew opened his tent door and walked inside as silently as he could, only to see May watch him close the tent door.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?", said Drew while flicking his hair.

"Yeah… it feels so strange, you know… being out here alone and nobody else knows where you are and everything… ", said May, her face turning red with Drew next to her.

"Stop worrying so much. Besides, we'll get out of here in no problem… I hope so… ", said Drew, finishing his sentence with a whisper.

"Thanks, Drew. I really needed that.", said May, as she went back into her sleeping bag.

'No problem.', thought Drew to himself as he smiled and laid down in his sleeping bag, finally falling asleep for the night.

* * *

 **December 4, 2002. Cerulean City. Midnight.**

Daisy Williams stared at the night sky, thinking about her own life. She had it all. Not only was she the leader of the Sensational Sisters, the best modeling team Kanto had ever seen, but she was also the older sister of the Cerulean Gym Leader, crushing challengers every day. But there was one thing that Daisy was not, and that was a caring sister.

Now her little sister, the so-called "runt" of the family, the one that she and her sisters treated like crap for most of their lives, was gone.

After seeing the emergency broadcast a day earlier, Daisy had broke down. She knew that she would never get to apologize for what she did to Misty, and her sisters knew it as well. They already had decided to take a leave of absence from their modeling career, and to reflect on how they treated their late sister. In just one day, their whole lives had been flipped upside down.

Daisy didn't care when Misty told her that she was at Indigo Plateau, being kept safe from what happened in Pewter that night. The three Sensational Sisters nodded their heads and thought that their sister was going to be okay, only to find out two days later that she was gone. Just like that, the whole script had been flipped.

Suddenly, the Gym's main phone rang. After waiting a moment, Daisy sighed and answered it.

"Hello? Who's calling this late?", asked an exhausted Daisy.

"Huh? Daisy, is that you?", said the voice on the phone. Daisy recognized the voice on the phone, and her eyes widened.

"Tracey? Yeah, it's me. What's up?", she said, trying her best to sound happy.

"Daisy, they've planned a funeral for all of them… it's in Pallet tomorrow at ten AM. Maybe you'll come and speak… ", said Tracey.

"Thanks, Tracey… speaking for Misty is the least I could do… I'll definitely be there.", said Daisy.

"You're welcome… see you there. Bye!", said Tracey as he hung up the phone.

Daisy smiled. Tracey always was the type of guy to help you out in these kinds of situations. Even if she was mean to her sister in the past, she would throw out all that and start to honor her memory as a great Gym Leader and sister.

* * *

 **December 4, 2002. Pallet Town. Morning.**

Lance stepped off of his Dragonite and landed outside Professor Oak's lab. The professor was the most famous person in all of Pallet, and he was the leading authority of all things going on in the town, so it only made sense to go to him for help on the funeral.

He looked to his left to see the other champions land next to him, outside the front porch. "You ready?", asked Lance. They nodded their heads, and Lance rung the doorbell.

Professor Oak was about to get started feeding the Pokemon breakfast when he heard the doorbell ring. He motioned Tracey to start feeding the Pokemon, and went for the door.

He was pretty shocked to see all six regional champions at his doorstep, to say the least.

"My, my, what brings you here this early in the morning? Oh, the memorial, that's right. Please, come on in.", said the professor. The champions walked into the laboratory, and followed Professor Oak into the living room. There, a woman was already sitting on the couch, wearing a black blouse and skirt.

"Delia? Delia! Please, welcome our guests.", said the Professor. The woman stood up, and gave a faint smile when noticing the six others in the room. Lance stared at her. She had seemed so cheerful just a few days earlier, but now she seemed completely different… well, some of that had to do with him, and he wasn't going to deny that.

"Hi, I'm Delia Ketchum. Nice to meet you. You might have known my son… ", she said as her expression changed to that of sadness. The champions smiled back and sat down on the couches.

The professor brought out a notepad to write down ideas. "So, what do you want for this memorial? No bodies were ever found, so there won't be any reason for a burial. We have gathered people to speak, so would you like to do as well?", said the professor.

The champions looked at each other and nodded. "Yes, we will.", said Steven. "It would be a great idea.", commented Diantha.

"Thank you so much. Now, let's get started on this, shall we?", said the Professor. Lance stared at his colleagues, as it definitely was going to be a long discussion

A while later, after everything was planned and notices were sent out to the guests, it was time for lunch. Tracey had returned and was hanging out with the group, asking as many questions as he could and sketching as many of the champions' Pokemon he could find. Professor Oak smiled at his young assistant. He was already turning out to be like himself - absolutely hooked on research.

"Please-stay a little longer. I have got to show you my recipe for homemade pasta.", said Delia as she rushed into the Ketchum residence, where Lance had been only two days earlier.

"Cynthia, what are we doing? We're supposed to stop by the funeral home to register for an appointment.", said Lance.

"I believe I can answer that question." The champions turned to face Professor Oak, who had a wistful look on his face.

"Delia always loves guests… it's just because she's always lonely. She lost her husband a long time ago, and now her son… ", said the Professor.

The champions stood in place, realizing the extent of their mistakes. Lance, in particular, was shocked. He had never realized the extent of what he had inadvertently caused. These families were reeling from his mistake, and he had to be the one to fix that.

"It's all right, Samuel. We're staying.", said Lance, as the group went to the dining room and began to eat.

As he took a look around the living room and dining room, he noticed there were a lot of pictures of Ash and Delia, but there was no semblance of a father. Lance presumed that maybe Delia's husband had died or abandoned the family, leaving her to take care of Ash by herself, and that would explain why Delia felt so lonely according to the Professor.

* * *

 **December 4, 2002. Somewhere northeast of Indigo Plateau. Late Morning.**

"Ash? Ash! Wake up already?", shouted Misty. Everyone else was up and ready, except for the raven-haired teen still sound asleep in his sleeping bag. Then, his eyes shot open and he sat straight up in bed, only so see Misty a few inches away from him.

"Uh… hi, Misty!", said Ash.

"Finally, you're up. Everyone else was ready half and hour ago.", grumbled Misty. She watched as Ash got up and packed up all his stuff as fast as he could, and successfully sent the tent towards Clemont's Aipom Arm and into his backpack.

"Okay, let's roll!", shouted Ash as he started to walk out of the clearing. The others sweatdropped, but soon continued on their way as well.

They stopped a little later to eat breakfast, courtesy of Brock and his cooking skills, and soon found themselves heading east again.

Soon after, the terrain became much less rough and uncharted, as it was now mostly flat and plain. The gang was keeping their stride until Trip stopped suddenly and snapped a picture of something with his digital camera.

"You might want to take a look at this, guys… ", he said as the others rushed towards him, only to see a page belonging to a newspaper of sorts. On the front there was a title written in bold words.

 **The Pewter Times - December 3, 2002 - Volume CCXLV**

 **MASSIVE ATTACK LEAVES INDIGO DESTROYED, EIGHTEEN TEENAGERS DEAD**

The group was set in shock. The reality of the situation that they were in had finally set in, and everyone was feeling emotional, including Paul of all people.

Ash fell to his knees, in tears. Misty ran towards him, while thinking that her sisters probably wouldn't be that upset about her supposed 'death'.

Brock, as much as he tried, couldn't hold back his tears, and collapsed to the ground, thinking of how devastated his family would be.

Max, who had been quiet and scared throughout his journey, ran up to his sister in tears. May tried to comfort her brother as best as she could, but ended up crying as well.

The rest of the gang wasn't all good either.

Barry was on the verge of bursting out, and Dawn and Kenny weren't much better either.

Gary was on the ground, worried for his life about his gramps.

Cilan had put a comforting hand on Iris's shoulder to help her out, but he couldn't stop thinking about his brothers.

Ritchie and Trip were worried for their parents and families, and Trip knew that he would never delete that photo ever on his digital camera.

Clemont set his bag down, scared and worried for his sister and father. Serena went to comfort him, only to be struck by sadness for her mother.

Zoey sat down in defeat. The Snowpoint Gym Leader Candice had helped her out when she was younger, and she could imagine the worry that Candice felt right now for her.

Paul let a single tear fall from his face, while Drew stared in shock. He knew his father wasn't the greatest guy out there in terms of caring for a family, but Drew wondered how he would cope knowing that his only child was gone.

"What… what do we do now?", said Dawn. "What are we going to do?"

"I… I don't know.", said Ash. He had gotten up from the ground and pulled his backpack over his shoulder, but he was still visibly upset.

"Well, we are heading east, right? Then let's keep going.", said Paul, who finally decided to speak up.

"I agree. We'll be found if we stay in one place, and the Champions are going to be in more hot water.", said Brock.

Gary sighed. "Fine. Let's keep heading east.", she said as the rest of the group got up and started to walk again. The group had sad looks on their faces as they continued to head east.

"Paul, are you okay? You don't seem to be upset about this.", said Dawn, who was worried for him.

"I am worried for Reggie, okay? Is that all you wanted to know?", said Paul as he turned to face Dawn.

"Just Reggie? Don't you have other people who care about you?", said Dawn. Paul's expression turned south, and Dawn immediately knew that she had struck a nerve.

"No. I don't have anybody like that. Especially a father.", murmured Paul as he walked off. Dawn attempted to stop him, but Brock saw this and put a hand on her arm.

"Dawn, that's enough. Let him be.", said Brock, and Dawn reluctantly obeyed, starting to walk with the others again.

Meanwhile, Ash was walking by himself, before Misty went and joined him.

"Hey Ash… are you okay? Feeling better?", said Misty. Ash turned to face her, and then came up with a response.

"Yeah, I guess… I'm just worried about my mom, that's all.", said Ash. "She had to take care of me all by herself after my dad left, and she now thinks I'm gone as well… it must be really hard for her.", said Ash.

Misty looked at Ash. "I'm sure it'll be fine, Ash. Your mother always seems to be happy no matter the occasion, and I'm sure that won't change.", exclaimed Misty. "Now, let's keep going."

"Alright, Misty. I'm going.", said Ash as he started to walk again, but then turned around to face her.

"Thanks, Misty. That really means a lot to me.", said Ash as he turned back around and walked. Misty's heart thundered in her chest, and she did blush for a second.

'You're welcome, Ash. Anytime.', thought Misty as she started to walk as well, heading eastward along with the group.

* * *

 **December 4, 2002. Striaton City. Afternoon.**

"Hello? … Yes, this is Cress of Striaton. How can I help you?"

Cress was trying to sound happy over the phone, but he just wasn't able to manage. He had been in a depressing mood ever since he saw the emergency region-wide broadcast and found out that his brother was dead.

Chili wasn't that better off, either. He was the most tempered one of the triplets, and he had been having a major reaction to his brother's death. Cilan was always able to make Chili calm down, but Cress wasn't able to handle his brother's hot head. As Chili was busy taking out his anger on their cooking supplies, Cress had gone to answer the phone.

"Cress Griffith? Yes, this is Cynthia Jenness. There's going to be a funeral for your brother and the others in Pallet Town, Kanto, at 10 AM. We have already purchased plane tickets for you and your brother, so make sure to board at the Nuvema Airstrip. I hope to see you in Pallet."

Cress nodded his head and disconnected the phone. It was nice of the Champions to make sure there was a memorial for his brother and the other teenagers, but did it have to be all the way in Kanto?

He would have to make do with it, he presumbed. Cress opened the door to the Gym's restaurant section to see Chili lying on the ground, flour all over his uniform.

"Chili?", asked Cress, hoping to see that his brother was awake.

"Yes, brother?", asked Chili. He was down in the dumps at the moment, after this angry outburst had made him collapse on the ground in defeat.

"There will be a funeral in Pallet Town, Kanto, at 10 AM. Come on, we have to catch the ferry.", said Cress. His brother immediately got up and ran to his room to begin packing his things.

Cress shook his head as he wandered up the stairs to his room. Chili would always have drastic mood swings whenever something new was brought up between the brothers, and today was no exception.

* * *

 **December 4, 2002. Pallet Town, Kanto. Afternoon.**

"Daaaaaad, are we there yet? You run just like Clemont, you know!"

Meyer and Bonnie had arrived at the Viridian City Airport just an hour earlier, and Bonnie had been nagging her father nonstop ever since they started to trek on the scenic Route 1. They had already left the paved roads and were now walking through an open field.

Meyer had been one of the first people to be notified about the memorial, and Bonnie had convinced him to buy the first tickets for a high-speed flight to Kanto right after.

"Hey Bonnie, check this out!", said Meyer. As a professional electrician, he knew when electricity could cause damage to another surface, and this area was no exception. The ground still looked singed of a electrical attack, but it almost looked like it was a while ago, presumably over five years.

"What is it, Dad? Don't waste our time here, we still have to be in Pallet by eneving! You said that yourself!", said Bonnie, clearly impatient.

"Bonnie, I'm not wasting our time. I just wanted to show you that this field seems to have been completely wrecked by a strong electrical attack! It's always great to spot something like that!", said Meyer, completely intrigued about the subject.

"Okay, Dad. Now let's get going already!", shouted Bonnie, who had started to run ahead of her father. Meyer sighed and followed his daughter, but not before taking a picture of the singed area to look at later.

As Meyer and Bonnie traveled along the dirt path, they were in awe of the magnificent waterfall that ran down to a river with a very fast current, and the downhill straight path that led to an overlook of the town.

" … It's beautiful… ", said Meyer, who was awed by the view overlooking the small, quaint town.

"Yeah… ", said Bonnie. "Ash always said he loved this view whenever he came back home… " Bonnie's face turned sour at the end of her sentence, and Meyer immediately understood.

"Ash lived here, huh?", said Meyer. "Well, we did come here to pay respects to him, and Clemont… ", he finished, unable to continue his speech in sadness.

The tandem of father and daughter began to walk downhill towards Pallet, in which they would be celebrating the memory of great family and friends who had passed.

* * *

 **December 4, 2002. Somewhere northeast of Indigo Plateau. Evening.**

"Look! The path is widening!", shouted an energetic Barry.

He was right, after all. The path that the group had been traveling on was indeed getting wider, allowing for more room to walk instead of going in a single file line. The group relaxed at this sight, and began to spread out more along the path, but making sure that nobody was nearby and if anyone could spot them.

"Hey Brock, do you know where we are?", asked May. She had been excited for all of that day, ready to travel more and snap some more photos for "May's Expeditions".

"I still don't know, May. My Pokegear isn't picking up a signal, so nothing yet.", said Brock, with a disappointed look on his face.

May sighed and started to walk away. "Very well, then. Without knowing their current location, May and friends are still wandering eastward, with no end in sight.", said May, while starting to walk with Drew again.

Drew stared at May as she continued to monologue her adventure, while trying to avoid the brunette during their current trek.

Ash had stepped ahead of the rest of the group, and looked through a grove of trees and saw another path in a fork in the road.

"Hey, guys! There's a fork in the road!", said Ash. This perked up the group's attention again, and they all ran up alongside Ash to look at the split.

"All right, so which way do we go, then?", asked Zoey.

"I say we go straight. We've been lucky not to get spotted so far, and if we go straight we could have similar luck as well. For all we know, this path on the left could bring us back to civilization, which is the last thing we needed.", said Paul.

"Paul's right, but this other road is the best chance we've got. Do we really want to travel like this for a long period of time?", exclaimed Brock. The rest of the group nodded their heads at this statement.

"Okay. Who says we want to go straight?", asked Ash. Only Paul raised his hand.

"Good… now who says we go left?" Everyone else put their hands into the air. Paul sighed in defeat as the group started to go on the left path.

"Fine, let's go left. We don't know what's going to happen anyway, don't we?", exclaimed Paul with a sarcastic expression.

"Okay Paul, now let's get going.", said Dawn as she motioned him over to the rest of the group, and he began to walk that way along with Dawn.

After another long stretch of walking, the group came across what seemed to be a normal numbered route of Kanto, complete with a nearby Pokemon Center.

"Alright, what do we do now? We all want to go and rest in that Pokemon Center, but there are a few problems. We're still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and people would obviously spot us and destroy the conspiracy.", said Brock.

"Well, we could come up with some disguises. I mean, if Team Rocket is able to fool the general population of Kanto on a daily basis, then what's to say we couldn't do the same thing?", said Ash.

"You may have a point, Ash. Okay, does anybody have any extra clothes?", asked Drew.

* * *

After the group discussed their plan, they walked up towards the Pokemon Center, making sure that Dawn was in front of everybody else.

As they entered the building, Nurse Joy stared at the group suspiciously, but soon returned to her own work. Dawn stepped up to the counter, preparing her best royal accent.

"Hello. My name is Princess Salvia, from Arrowroot Town, and these are my guests.", Dawn exclaimed as she showed the nurse the other teens waiting behind her.

Once Ash came up with the idea to use disguises, the group went with it. Luckily, Dawn had packed a Contest dress in her backpack before the incident at Indigo Plateau, and now it was in great use, as Dawn had dressed up as her lookalike princess from Sinnoh.

"Okay, Your Highness, you and your guests can have the suite room. You don't need to show me any ID's, I'm sure your royal court covered that up already.", said Nurse Joy. The group walked out of the lobby and up the elevator to their suite room.

The suite was enormous, with a few bedrooms, a pull-out couch or two, and a giant TV in the living room. The group immediately relaxed once they had locked the door, and sighed in relief.

"Oh. My. Arceus.", said Dawn. "I can't believe I pulled that off!", she exclaimed.

"It was great that you did, Dawn, or else we would have been sleeping in the woods for another night. Thanks a lot.", said Ash. Dawn smiled and started to unpack her things.

"Well, that was a risky move, right?", said Ritchie. He had been in the back during this entire trek, not really being noticed by anyone else.

"You bet it was, but I'm glad it worked. Now, we have an actual bed to sleep on!", shouted Gary.

After the group unpacked their bags and made sure everybody had a bed to sleep in, they decided to relax for the night. The teens decided that the bed arrangements were to be the same as the tents, so everybody was comfortable with their roommates so far.

* * *

"That was the best sleep I've ever had!", exclaimed Ash as he woke up well-rested the next morning. He walked out of his room to see everyone lounging around in the living room. Brock had woke him up for the sunrise, along with everyone else. Even though it was early in the morning, the group wasn't complaining.

Dawn put on her doppleganger personality once more as the gang left the Pokemon Center, not without attracting some suspicious looks as they exited the building.

After they stopped in the woods to let Dawn change out of her dress and into her normal clothes, the group continued to travel the route and climb up its path before getting stuck behind a mass of people. After checking to make sure they were all in disguises, the group went up to a nearby person and asked him what was going on.

"What are you all doing here?", said Ash in his disguise. He was wearing a hooded jacket and made sure to hide his hair and face from anyone else.

"Oh, we're just watching the sunrise. Beautiful, isn't it?", said the man as he pointed out at the group of people. "The view from here is amazing. You all should try and find an empty space to watch it."

Ash and his disguised friends nodded their heads. "Thank you.", said Ash as he walked away along with everybody else. Soon after, the group came across an empty cliff ledge and decided to occupy it for the moment. Barry was the first one to reach the spot, and gasped in awe at the view, as it was truly amazing.

You could see the whole valley from where Barry was standing, and there were even more mountains to the north. The faint outline of a path below could be made out from where he was standing on the ledge.

But what really intrigued the hyperactive teen was the massive tree-like structure directly in front of the him, and that was surrounded by more mountains. He continued to stare at the view before him in awe as the rest of the group arrived behind him.

Dawn stopped to catch her breath, before noticing Barry's shocked expression and where he was staring at. Her eyes followed her old neighbor's pointing finger to the structure, and she gasped at how beautiful it was.

As most of the group arrived, they were also in awe at what they were seeing. Trip, Ritchie, Cilan, Iris, Zoey, and Kenny were awed by the site.

Gary, Max, and Clemont were busy taking notes about what they were seeing.

Serena, Misty, and Dawn were staring in shock at the amazing view they were looking out on,

Ash, Brock, May, and Max were the last ones to reach the ledge, and were surprised as to why nobody was moving. As they made their way to the front of the ledge, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped in surprise at what they were seeing.

The Tree of Beginning was right in front of them, and green light was now shining off it in beautiful waves.

* * *

Looks like the gang has reached civilization again, but they're just getting started. Tune in to find out what happens next! Feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	7. VI - Reliving Memories

**The Eighteen**

 **Chapter 7**

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Cameran Palace. Sunrise.**

"Your Highness! Something is going on with the Tree!"

Queen Ilene of Rota awoke to her maid rushing over to her and helping her get up as quickly as possible. After getting dressed in her royal robes and getting ready for the day, her main hurried her outside to the nearest balcony.

From there, she saw the Tree of Beginning shine bright green, just like that day almost three years ago. The queen never really understood what Mew was doing in the tree, but now she could understand that something definitely was going on.

"Okay, now I get it. Send a Lucario to investigate the matter.", said the queen in the most proper voice she could manage at that time.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go get some more sleep.", muttered Ilene as she went back to her royal quarters. Her maid bowed as she left the balcony.

Meanwhile, all across Rota, people were waking up to the amazing sight that was being displayed at the Tree. People soon crowded outside the palace to see this amazing sight for the first time in almost three years.

"Mommy, is this like what happened before?", asked a young girl to her mother. Her mother smiled down at her daughter and nodded her head.

The girl looked in awe at the green light shining throughout the ancient kingdom, as her mother did the same.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Northern Kanto. Morning.**

"What… what is that?", asked Dawn. The rest of the group was still in awe at the green light coming off the tree, and was still staring in amazement.

"I… I have no idea… ", murmured Drew. Everyone was staring in shock, but Ash, May, Max, and Brock were extremely surprised because they actually knew what was happening.

"Ash… is that… ", stuttered Max. Ash, still mesmerized, turned to Max and nodded his head. Max gasped and stared back around at the Tree.

May and Brock were also staring at the sight, marveled by the amazing light that they had seen for a second time now, but it did look even more amazing from a distance.

The group continued to stare at the sight, until a blue and black blur caught their attention. Dawn and Barry stepped back in shock to see a Lucario race up the cliff and stop right in front of the ledge with its eyes closed.

"Is that… a Lucario?", asked Drew in surprise. Ash looked at him and nodded his head, and Drew noticed that while turning around to face the others.

"Yeah… but what's it doing here?", asked Serena.

Ritchie shrugged. "I have no idea.", he exclaimed as he looked at the others, who also had similar expressions.

The Lucario looked at the group, its eyes still closed. _"Hmm… "_ , the Pokemon mumbled.

Paul was staring in shock. "How's it talking?", he asked in surprise.

"Telepathy, I guess?", answered Max. Then, the Lucario straightened itself out, and spoke again, still with its eyes closed.

" _So this was the source of the Aura I had sensed… interesting… "_ , said the Lucario. Ash tried not to show a reaction, but he did let out a small gasp. Brock, May, Max, and Dawn also had a reaction to this as well, while the others stared at them.

"Ok, but I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't know why you bothered to corner a bunch of teenagers! What do you want with us anyway?", shouted Gary. He had put away his camera after taking some spectacular pictures of the view from the ledge.

The Lucario tilted to his head to one side, perhaps surprised by Trip's reaction.

Gary was getting ready to yell at the Pokemon some more until Ash ran up to stop him. "Gary, you really shouldn't be doing this!", shouted Ash as he tried to hold his rival back.

"Yeah, and why not? This guy's just asking for trouble!", said Gary.

The Lucario, in one swift motion, perked his head up. The teens just stared as the Lucario started to charge up a massive Aura Sphere. They tried to run away, but they got knocked out before they could leave.

" _Well, that's for me to know and you to find out."_ , muttered Lucario as he ran back to the palace, eyes closed the whole way down.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Pallet Town. Morning.**

Lance, along with the other Champions, stood in the clearing. The workers were getting everything set up for the memorial, and a few guests had arrived already.

Besides the beautiful sunrise, the sun was almost getting covered by the clouds, and it was getting cloudy fast. The whole setting seemed right, as if the sky itself was mourning for these lost kids.

As the finishing touches were being applied to the preparations, Lance looked at Cynthia.

"So, are you ready?", asked Cynthia, raising an eyebrow.

Lance stared at the Sinnoh Champion.

"I have to be. It's the only way I can be a good leader.", said Lance.

"Well then, what are you waiting for?", asked Cynthia. Lance nodded and turned to face the audience. Many people had shown up, and even some wild Pokemon had come to watch as well.

Lance, taking a deep breath, straightened himself out and took the microphone. "Here goes nothing", he muttered to himself.

"Thank you all for coming here today. This nation has been brought to its knees with the loss of these trainers, and it is my job to help get that nation back on its feet. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, including leaders, and it is now my job to help this nation stand up to our threats. However, we must pay our respects to these amazing Pokemon Trainers, Coordinators, and Doctors that have helped us out in our endeavors."

Lance stepped down and handed the mic to the funeral manager, who went along with the memorial as planned.

The memorial was spectacular. Since no bodies were found, empty caskets were put into the ground to signify the deaths of these kids. Flowers were put on each and every one of those eighteen caskets as they were lowered into the ground.

After the memorial was over, most of the audience stuck around for the free food that was being served. The mood did not change, as close relatives and family members chose to speak about their lost family.

"Once again, thank you all for coming. My name is Delia Ketchum." The audience turned to stare at the woman behind the microphone, and listen to her.

"I never really believed everything my son said about his journeys. The parts about encountering new people and Pokemon, and all the adventures he had with his friends.", said Delia.

"But seeing you all here… that makes me think that he was right. Thank you for honoring my son and his friends today.", said Delia as she stepped down from the podium. The audience gave her a standing ovation as she went back to her seat, comforted by Professor Oak and Tracey.

As other people were speaking, Reggie was at a table along with Maylene and a few other people. He was in the best mood he could be in at a funeral, until he spotted someone in the corner of his eye.

A gruff man with graying hair in a green coat was standing in the audience, listening to the current speaker. Reggie's eyes narrowed, and he soon turned his attention back to his girlfriend.

Maylene noticed Reggie's distress and asked him a question. "Reggie, what's wrong?"

Reggie winced one more as his girlfriend spoke, and that caught the older man's attention. The man turned around and started to walk towards the table, until Reggie stood up and went towards the man.

"What the hell are you doing here!", whisper-yelled Reggie, trying not to attract any attention.

"What are you so mad about, Reginald?", said the man. Reggie winced, but he didn't back away.

"I'm just here to pay my respects. That Ash kid was a good trainer for sure.", said the man.

"Damn it, Brandon! Why show up now, after everything that's happened!", yelled Reggie. The man, now revealed to be Brandon, the Pyramid King, put his head down and started to walk away.

The breeder followed the Frontier Brain until they were away from everyone else, and then Brandon suddenly stopped.

"What is it, Reginald? Am I not allowed to mourn my son?", said Brandon.

By this point Reggie was furious. "How dare you call him your son! You lost that right when you left me and Paul for ourselves!"

"I only did that because I had a job. And besides, you could have taken care of your brother, which is why I left.", said Brandon.

"That's exactly why! You just left us to fend for ourselves! Sure we survived, but people should have a father in their lives!", said Reggie, who was seething in anger.

"Hmmph. You're too young to understand.", muttered Brandon as he walked away. Reggie decided not to go after him, and soon went back to the memorial.

"What was that about?", said Maylene. Reggie looked up to face her, and answered her.

"Nothing to worry about. I'll be fine.", said Reggie.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Cameran Palace. Morning.**

"Ohh… Arceus… where are we?"

Ash had just woken up in a strange room, not knowing how he had gotten here. The last thing he remembered was him holding back Gary from attacking a Lucario, and then nothing.

'Maybe the Lucario knocked the whole group out and transported them here', he presumbed. As he was sitting up, he saw the others wake up as well and sit up along with Ash.

"Hey Ash, do you know where we are?", asked Misty. Ash turned around to face her.

"I have no idea, Misty. Only thing I know is that we're in someplace fancy.", said Ash.

Gary chuckled. "Thanks, Ashy-boy. That really clears things up a lot."

"Hilarious", mumbled Ash as he turned away from Gary. As he turned to the others, he came up with an idea.

"Well, since we're all awake now, why don't we go check this place out?", asked Ash. The others were about to respond, until a different voice cut through the conversation.

" _How about you all come with me instead."_

The teens turned to see the same Lucario that they had met earlier walk into the room followed by a Mime Jr. He motioned them to come with them, and the teens reluctantly went along with them.

Ash was scanning the massive hallway that they were in, along with the others. They were all shocked to be in such a beautiful room with lots of old paintings and murals.

Brock suddenly shot up, as if he recognized something. His eyes started to become dreamy, and he looked as if he was in a daze.

Misty noticed this, and turned around to slap some sense into him. However, she already saw Max and a Croagunk already beside Brock to make sure he didn't embarrass himself again.

"Geez… Brock! What's your problem!", shouted Misty.

"So… beautiful… ", muttered Brock. Misty and Max decided to leave the Pokemon Doctor alone while Croagunk Poison Jabbed him to the ground.

After walking for a while, the hallway opened up into a huge room, with an amazing mosaic in the back left corner. Ash, May, and Max gasped in shock, while Brock, who had gotten back on his feet, also had his jaw dropping and eyes dreamy.

The Lucario and Mime Jr. went in front of the teens stood at the side of a woman in royal robes, who then stood up

"Well, I should have believed Lucario when he said you all were alive, huh?", said Queen Ilene as she stood up and stepped off her chair.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Pallet Town. Late Morning.**

Lance cleared his throat. Since the memorial had ended, people were allowed to speak about their lost family, and the press had been at all of their throats since then.

It was now Lance's turn to make a special announcement along with the other Champions concerning the fate of the upcoming League circuits, and he had managed to get Mr. Goodshow's approval for this.

As he stepped onto the podium for the second time that day, he took a deep breath. This announcement would definitely cause some controversy, but it was greatly needed.

"Attention, everybody. I would like to make an announcement concerning the upcoming League circuits in Kanto and Johto.", said Lance. The whole audience quieted down, anticipating Lance's next words.

"I have declared that the Indigo Plateau will be suspending any League events or battles until this situation with Team Rocket is dealt with, and my fellow Champions have done the same to their respective regions.", he said as he turned to face his colleagues and Mr. Goodshow, who had also shown up for the memorial.

Mr. Goodshow took the microphone from Lance and was explaining the effects of the League suspension, but many audience members were talking to each other at that time.

"This is just, like, great. My sister leaves me in charge of the gym, and like, then dies, and like, now the gym is suspended from battling? This is, like, a weird chain of events.", exclaimed Daisy, who was sitting next to her sisters and Tracey.

"Daisy, I'm sure it'll be fine.", said Tracey, while her sisters nodded.

"Yeah, like, we can focus on our modeling more now!", exclaimed Lily. Daisy glared at her, signaling that this was not the time for that.

Meanwhile, Delia was sitting at a table next to the Professor. "Oh, Ash, why did I have to lose you too!", she cried to herself.

Professor Oak shot a look at Delia before turning his head back around. She was alone now, without a husband or a child to care for.

He knew Delia would take this los extremely hard, since Ash had meant the world to her, but she would have to pull through for her own good.

"Delia? How about we go back to the laboratory.", said the Professor. Delia looked up and smiled before responding.

"Ok, Samuel. I've had enough of this for one day.", said Delia, as she went to throw away another tissue before walking away with the Professor.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Cameran Palace. Morning.**

The group was in shock, for at least the third time that day. Not only were they standing in one of the most majestic palaces they had ever been in, but they were also in Rota, one of the most ancient kingdoms on the planet.

Brock suddenly rushed up to the Queen, who looked startled, but was thankfully pulled back by Misty and Max's ear pulling.

Ash, May, and Max bowed, and the others saw and did the same. "Hello, Your Highness.", greeted Ash.

The Queen smiled. "Thank you for the pleasantries, but we do have somewhere to go. Lucario?", she said as the Lucario from earlier walked up to her side, and started to walk away. The Queen followed the Pokemon, along with the rest of the group.

"So, do you even know why we were brought here, Your Majesty?", asked Gary, trying to be polite.

"Well, the Tree was shining green again, so I asked a Lucario to investigate. He's much better than I am at this Aura stuff.", exclaimed the Queen. Ash perked up, and went over to Ilene.

"Was the Tree shining again… because of me? You were there last time… ", whispered Ash. The Queen shrugged, and responded.

"I don't know, Ash. We'll all find out once we get to the Tree. I just hope Mew can let us in without letting her defense mechanisms on us.", exclaimed the Queen. Ash shuddered at the memories of the Regis and the Tree's "white blood cells" attacking him and the crew during their last adventure here.

"What are you talking about? Tree? Mew? Aura? What is all this?", exclaimed Misty. Ilene stopped to look at her, and came up with a response.

"Please, be patient. We'll all know what's going on when we reach the Tree of Beginning.", said Ilene. The rest of the group got quiet and started to walk.

After a while walking the group reached the entrance to the mountain that was known as the Tree of Beginning. Queen Ilene stopped and asked for Lucario to call Mew.

" _Mew? Mew! Please let us into the Tree!"_ , shouted Lucario. Meanwhile, Dawn turned to Paul and asked him a question.

"Do you really think there's a Mew in there?", asked Dawn. Paul looked at her, then grunted.

"Hmmph. Do you really expect to see a live Mew in this thing? I wouldn't think so.", exclaimed Paul while he was looking at the ground.

"You'll be surprised, Paul.", muttered Ash as he kept walking, and Paul whirled to face him, but then turned away and started to walk away.

Serena turned to Clemont, who was busy fiddling with his inventions. "Clemont? What's wrong?"

Clemont turned around, face in despair. "My… my inventions are freaking out! There must be some sort of electromagnetic interference in this mountain that's causing this… ", he muttered while Serena sweatdropped and backed away.

Max heard some footsteps and jumped back in fear. May noticed this and asked her brother a question. "Max, what's wrong?"

"I thought I heard something back there… AAAAHH!", shrieked Max as a Registeel, Regirock, and Regice came hulking into the passageway.

The others winced, realizing the extent of the situation. Then, the Lucario turned around to face the group.

" _New plan, we run!"_ , shouted the Lucario.

The rest of the group bolted in the opposite direction, away from the Regis. Suddenly, Iris spoke up.

"Is this what you mean by defense mechanisms!", she shouted. Brock looked ahead into the passageway, and winced.

"You haven't seen half of it!", he shouted before stopping dead in his tracks. Many white blood cells were gathering in the passage, waiting to exterminate any human intruders.

Brock pointed towards the cells before whirling back around, only to see the Regis lumbering towards the group.

"Arceus… we're trapped.", muttered Ash. May, Max, and Brock all had similar expressions, while the others looked confused.

"How come! Can't we walk just past those orange blobs?", demanded Drew.

Ash grimaced. "Those things completely suck you up. You're risking your life if you want to go through that.", he exclaimed. That shut up the others for a while.

As the Regis and the white blood cells were closing in, the group didn't know what to do. After everything they had been through so far, they definitely didn't want to die like this.

"Mew!"

The Queen smiled as Mew came flying into the passageway, much to the surprise of the teens. Mew motioned for the Regis to back away from the group, and then the white blood cells dissolved back into the tree's many crystals. The Lucario started to follow Mew, and the group followed suit.

Once the group reached the open main chamber of the Tree, Ash couldn't help but stare at the main crystal in the center. He had watched Sir Aaron's Lucario sacrifice himself to save the Tree, and lie down there, dying, while Ash couldn't do anything to save him.

He noticed that there was a second time flower near the base of the crystal, signifying that his adventure with Lucario had been etched into history. That did make him smile, but it still didn't change the overall mood of being back in this chamber.

" _Greetings, Mew. Why is it that you have signaled the Tree to shine now?"_ , asked Lucario.

Mew tried to tell the group using hand motions, but nobody understood her at first. After thinking for a minute, she decided to talk to everybody telepathically.

" _Sorry about the telepathy, but it was the only way I could talk to you all."_ , exclaimed Mew. The group gasped in shock when they heard another voice in their heads.

"What the? How can you talk too?", exclaimed Trip, who was taking even more pictures of the chamber on his camera.

" _Telepathy, right? Didn't I just explain that? Anyway, the only reason I made the Tree light up was because of the massive Auras I sensed just this morning."_ , said the Psychic-type.

"Okaaay, so what does this have to do with us? This Lucario said that we were the source of some Aura he sensed or whatever, but what does that mean?", asked Drew. May had a grim expression on his face, as if Drew was in for something bad.

" _Well, why don't you see for yourself?"_ , said Mew as the Legendary Pokemon motioned Lucario to one of the time flowers, and opened up the first one.

* * *

 **Unknown Date. The Tree of Beginning. Unknown Time.**

"Please, Mew! Accept the Aura!"

The Legendary Aura Guardian Sir Aaron stood in the same chamber in which the teens were in, only this was a memory from long ago. The sick Legendary could barely function in this memory, which is why Sir Aaron had to save her.

The Aura Guardian charged up a massive Aura Sphere that completely enveloped Mew, but at the same time depleted his life force. His form started to turn blue and he started to convulse, but that wouldn't stop Sir Aaron from saving Mew and ending the war.

"The… Aura… is… with me!", shouted Sir Aaron as he sent out the last of his Aura reserves into Mew, fully healing it and allowing the Tree to light bright green and signal a sigh of peace.

Sir Aaron collapsed against the main crystal, completely exhausted. He knew he was going to die, but that didn't matter right now. He had saved the kingdom, but he knew he would never get to see Lucario again.

"Lucario… I'm sorry… NNGh!... I only sealed you to make sure you wouldn't intervene… it was the only way to save the kingdom… NNGH!... goodbye… "

Sir Aaron took in his last few breaths staring out at the amazing sight he had caused, and that he knew he would be remembered for generations.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. The Tree of Beginning. Late Morning.**

The first time flower closed, and the memory faded away back into the flower. The group was startled, as they had witnessed the memory of the death of one of Kanto's mightiest warriors.

"I only thought Aura was just a myth! How did this happen!", exclaimed Gary while Ash laughed.

"Gary, you're talking to a guy who has saved the world a bunch of times, and trust me, you get used to it after a while.", said Ash.

"Wait, there's another one of those! Why don't we look at that one!", exclaimed Serena, while Brock turned to look at Ash. His expression had changed in an instant to one of grief and sadness, and Brock was pretty sure as to why.

" _Are you sure you want me to open this next one?"_ , asked Mew.

"Yeah, why not? Let's just check it out.", exclaimed Ritchie. The Legendary shot a glance at Ash, who sighed and made his point.

"Fine. Just play the memory. It's only a few years old anyway.", he muttered as Lucario and the group stared at him, not before touching the second flower and igniting the memory within.

* * *

 **March 15, 2000. The Tree of Beginning. Afternoon.**

There's a way to save the Tree… by using the power of Aura?", asked a Lucario. Mew nodded, and flew over to the center of the chamber. Lucario was about to start the process, before a woman intervened.

"But Lucario, if you use the power of Aura to save the Tree, you'll end up in the same suspended state as Sir Aaron!", exclaimed Kidd Summers.

Lucario paused for a moment. "Yes, I know.", he exclaimed _._

"The Aura… is with me.", said Lucario as he attempted to transfer his Aura to Mew, while Kidd stood there, startled.

The Aura Sphere soon disappeared, and Lucario was grimacing. "It's not working; I'm not strong enough."

Suddenly, a younger-looking Ash stepped into the frame, and everyone was set in shock, while Ash was looking down at the ground, with a tear in his eye.

"Remember what you said about me before?", exclaimed Ash in the memory.

"Ash… ", muttered Lucario, but he was unable to stop him as he grabbed Sir Aaron's gloves that were placed onto the crystal in the previous memory.

As Ash pulled on the ancient gloves, he spoke again. "You said that my Aura was like Sir Aaron's. It's time to test if that's really true.", he said as he put his hands in front of him and focused on the sick Mew.

The people who were not with Ash on this adventure were in shock. Ash never disclosed any of this information to his other traveling companions, and he felt it was best for him to do that.

The Ash in the memory focused and created a small sphere of Aura, which slowly became larger. Ash's friends gasped at the sight, while Ash still couldn't bear to relive what had happened.

"Ash, no! It's too dangerous! You'll end up destroying yourself!", yelled Kidd, trying to reason with the boy.

"If I don't do this, the Tree will die, and so will the Pokemon that live here.", exclaimed Ash.

"Ash… ", muttered Lucario got the second time, as Ash kept up his Aura Sphere and placed it around Mew.

Meanwhile, Lucario had stopped reasoning with Ash as he too produced another Aura Sphere and combined it with Ash's, while Kidd and Ash's Pokemon stood in awe.

"I'm not gonna give up!", shouted Ash as he fought through the pain and kept up his Aura Sphere around the Legendary.

Ash and Lucario were fighting through the pain, but they were losing a lot of their life force, and both of them were turning blue and convulsing due to the pain.

Suddenly, Lucario pushed Ash to the side, which made him fall down and take off Sir Aaron's gloves as well, while Lucario had to heal Mew now on his own.

"Lucario-", Ash exclaimed until he was cut off by the jackal-like Pokemon.

"Ash, leave the rest to me! The Aura… is with me!", shouted Lucario as he pushed all of his life force into mew, healing the Psychic-type completely. As Mew flew up to light the Tree bright green again, Lucario collapsed onto the crystal.

"Lucario… you can't leave us now!", shouted Ash, who was in tears.

"I have to go, Ash… Aaron is waiting for me… ", whispered Lucario as he faded into the crystal, leaving Ash and Kidd behind.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. The Tree of Beginning. Late Morning.**

As the memory faded away, the group was brought back to the chamber, and they saw Ash fall to his knees in tears. Gary tried to go to him, but Brock managed to stop him.

"He just needs some time alone, Gary. Leave him be.", exclaimed Brock, as Gary reluctantly sat back down.

The rest of the group was also not in their best mood, as they had just seen a tragic memory that only Ash had gotten to experience firsthand.

Misty, however, stormed towards Ash, who was on his knees, and ran up to him.

"Ash… you almost died there… why did you do that!", shouted Misty, who seemed really upset at what she saw in that time flower.

"Well, I wanted to save the Tree and the Pokemon there… ", muttered Ash, while Misty stood there, tears falling down her face.

"Ash… I just don't want to lose you…", muttered Misty.

Ash frowned upon seeing Misty like this. "Misty… I'll be fine. Just trust me."

While Ash and Misty were talking, Drew turned to Brock, who was staring at the scene in front of them.

"Yeah… I see what you mean now, Brock.", whispered Drew. Brock smirked at this, and turned to face him. "She sure cares about him a lot, right?"

" _So… are you done yet?"_ , asked Mew, who was waiting impatiently. Ash and Misty sweatdropped, and turned back around, serious looks on their faces.

" _Ok, good. Now where was I?"_ , said Mew, while the others looked at each other.

"Well, the Tree was lit up bright green, and this Lucario commented about Aura sources, and now Ash can already use Aura as well. Yeah, that's right.", said Trip sarcastically.

" _Well, Ash could already use Aura, since that was basically three years ago. And of the other stuff, there seemed to be more Aura detected in the area, which is important because nobody can really use Aura anymore except for a few people. I only allowed the Tree to shine because of those multiple Aura sources."_

"I guess that clears some stuff up… muttered Ritchie, while the others nodded their heads at what he said.

"How about we all go back to the palace. It's been an eventful morning, to say the least.", said Queen Ilene as she started to walk out of the chamber.

" _Oh. And Ash? You might need these later on."_ , exclaimed Mew, as the Legendary pointed to Sir Aaron's gloves sitting on a crystal. Ash went over and put the legendary gloves in his backpack before walking out with his friends.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Pallet Town, Kanto. Late Morning.**

"I knew Drew since his first contest in Hoenn… it's a shame that he had to go… and May too… she was a good friend… ", murmured Solidad to Harley. Ever since bolting out of the G-Men Headquarters just two days earlier, she had gone to Blackthorn along with Harley and the Champions, and from there to Pallet.

As the two teenagers who had survived, the press had been all over the two Coordinators, and it would get really stressful at times to deal with the annoying reporters who kept asking her questions.

"Solidad, it's fine. We all have to deal with it, and you are no exception. The only thing you can smile about is that Drew and May are probably together in heaven right now.", snickered Harley, which made Solidad smile a little.

"Thanks, Harley.", she said as she walked over to an unoccupied couch and sat down on it. "That means a lot."

"Yeah, quit with the sadness, hun. Now let's get back to eating!", the Coordinator shouted as he dragged Solidad off the couch and back to the table to eat more lunch.

'Typical Harley… ', thought Solidad to herself as she got more food and sat down to eat. She was sad, but Harley always knew how to lighten the mood in any situation.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Cameran Palace. Afternoon.**

"Well, that was an eventful morning.", exclaimed Queen Ilene once she saw the teens getting ready to leave. They all had their disguises set in place, and were getting ready to leave the palace.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about you all.", said the Queen, and the teens heads perked up at this.

"Thank you, Your Majesty.", exclaimed Ash. Ilene said that she would allow them to stay, but the group refused, saying that they just felt the need to keep traveling. The queen didn't argue, as she was only an observer to these kids and their plans.

The teens walked out of the palace and onto the main route, making sure to have their disguises on and to try and blend in as best as they could before they got to the secluded areas to the north.

Misty was walking close to Ash, much to Serena's disgust, and was not willing to leave the raven-haired teen's side. The tension between the two girls was beginning to risen, and Brock especially noticed that.

"Pretty soon it's going to turn into an all-out war.", commented Brock to Gary. Gary smirked, and said, "Yeah, but how about us bachelors get girlfriends first, huh?", said Gary while Brock sighed in defeat.

"Yeah… don't remind me… ", exclaimed Brock as he put his head down and kept walking.

Ash had gone up to Misty after walking alone for a while, and he was going to ask a question only she knew about.

"Hey Misty… I need to talk to you about something.", said Ash. Misty's heart thundered in her chest, could this be the moment? "Yeah… what is it, Ash?"

"Well… Mew told me to take these with me… ", he exclaimed as he took out Sir Aaron's gloves, which Misty was awed at seeing it up close.

"Mew told me that I would need them… so I was wondering. Could this be part of the prophecy?", said Ash. Misty looked confused for a second, and so Ash reworded his sentence.

"You know, that whole Chosen One thing?", Ash whispered, trying not to attract anyone else's attention. Misty's eyes widened at that.

"I don't know, Ash, but from what you've told me, you've saved the world more times than just that, so it's not out of the question.", whispered Misty.

Ash sighed. "Yeah, I get that, but does it always have to be me who does this? Why is it my responsibility to save the world? Can't the Legendaries do that instead?"

"Ash, you should be flattered. After all, they chose you for that whole thing.", exclaimed Misty with a smile.

"Well yeah, but it does get annoying after a while. But that does mean a lot, Misty.", exclaimed Ash. He was going to say something else, but was interrupted.

"What are you talking about?", exclaimed Serena, interrupting Ash and Misty's conversation.

"Uh, nothing. It wasn't important.", stammered Misty. Gary saw this, and smirked.

"Well, it sure seemed personal for an unimportant conversation, huh?", snarked Gary, but he started to back away once he saw Misty storm towards him with her mallet.

"Oh, that is it!", shouted Misty as she began to chase down Gary. The researcher ran around the area trying to avoid the Gym Leader's wrath, but to no avail. Mity walked back onto the path, her mallet in her hands, while Gary straggled around with a huge bump on his head.

"Okay… can we keep moving now?", asked an annoyed Trip, while the others looked on in concern at Gary.

"Yeah… let's get going already. We don't need any more delays, do we?", continued Clemont. The group nodded and continued on their path, and for a while most of the group was silent and walking on their own.

"Hey Dee Dee, wouldn't you think that being able to use Aura would be cool or what?", asked Kenny with a smirk on his face. Dawn sighed and turned around to face him.

"Well, it would be cool and all, but can you please stop calling me Dee Dee? I tell you this every time, but you still do it!", complained Dawn.

Kenny shrugged. "Well, that's what makes it fun.", he smirked towards his childhood friend, who grunted and walked away.

As Dawn was walking away from Kenny, she saw Paul approach her and stop next to her. "Do you seriously think that Aura thing is real?", he asked in her face.

Dawn came up with a response immediately. "Well, I saw Ash use it in that memory… but do you not believe that?", she asked.

"That was probably just an illusion or something. I'll only believe it when I see it in person.", exclaimed Paul. Dawn sighed. "Whatever you say, Paul. Believe whatever you want.", exclaimed the bluenette as she kept walking ahead of Paul.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Pallet Town. Afternoon.**

"What are we going to do now?", asked Steven. "The League circuits are postponed, so we don't have anything do do with that. So now what?"

"Well, we could focus our efforts into the G-Men and stop Giovanni, you know.", exclaimed Alder. Right now, the Champions were by themselves in one of the laboratory rooms that the Professor let them have to discuss this situation.

"Fine, but where will we run our operations from? We'll have to all be in one place to maximize our forces.", exclaimed Lance. As he finished his speech, Professor Oak opened the door silently, trying not to attract the press who were at the lab.

"I couldn't help but not hear what you all were discussing here, and so I definitely could lend you rooms in this laboratory to help with your issues against Giovanni.", explained Professor Oak.

"Thank you, Samuel, we'll definitely consider that.", exclaimed Diantha as the professor walked out of the room.

Cynthia continued the conversation. "The only problem is Giovanni and his forces. What if he has many more grunts and Pokemon up his sleeve? We have to do something to prevent a total takeover.", exclaimed the Sinnoh Champion.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens next.", said Wallace.

Steven stood up off one of the chairs he was sitting on. "Well, how about we start by setting up operations here? The professor already said he would be glad to have us, and our Elites can take care of operations in other regions. I say we do it."

"I second that.", answered Cynthia immediately. Soon after, the other Champions expressed their agreement for this, and went down to the Professor to tell him the good news.

"Samuel? We've decided to stay here.", exclaimed Lance as he went downstairs to where the Professor was. Oak turned around and looked very happy.

"That's great! I'll help you all out any way I can, so thank you for your decision.", exclaimed Professor Oak.

"No problem, Samuel.", exclaimed Cynthia, who had also walked downstairs to tell the Professor the good news.

As the Champions walked back upstairs, the Professor lamented to himself. With the arrival of six regional champions, the town was bound to get lots of press and attention, but he hoped that nobody would reveal the fact that they were in Pallet in the first place, as that would maybe attract too much attention for the town to handle.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Unknown Location. Afternoon.**

"Will Executives Proton, Petrel, Archer, Ariana, and Domino please report to Floor 5, effective immediately.", said Jessie, trying to be cheerful and upbeat in the PA system.

"I can't believe we're stuck to doing announcement duty!", muttered Meowth, as James took the mic.

"Also, Agents Cassidy and Biff are cleared to be sent out on their mission.", exclaimed James into the microphone, trying not to laugh. He then put the microphone down and started smirking towards Jessie and Meowth.

"Well, Botch is going to get back at you for that too, huh Jimmy?", snarked Meowth.

"Why, yes he is. And don't call me Jimmy!", seethed James.

Jessie sighed. "Will you two ever shut up?", she said as James and Meowth turned to look at their long-haired friend. "What are you two looking at?"

"Nothing, nothing! I swear!", yelled James as Jessie chased him and Meowth out of the soundboard room.

"Come in, Executives. I have a mission for you.", exclaimed Giovanni as the five elite Rocket Members came into the Boss's office, each sporting their custom Rainbow Rocket uniforms.

"What do you want from us, Boss?", asked Domino. She was the youngest of the group, but she could be argued as one of the strongest Executives with her skills in espionage and fighting.

"Well, I've finished our portion of Phase Two, and it is for you to scour Kanto and Johto, looking for people or items that could help our cause, while I and my council will be continuing our portion of Phase Two.", explained Giovanni.

"Petrel, Ariana, and Domino, you will take Johto, and Archer and Proton will scout Kanto for useful information or people.", finished the Boss.

"Yes, Boss!", shouted the Executives as they stood firm in front of their leader, and then walked out of the office to get prepared for their missions.

Now that the lower levels of Phase Two were going into effect, it was time for the next stage of Rainbow Rocket's conquest to begin. Giovanni smiled. He would have control of this world, and with powerful people and Pokemon at his disposal, he would not be stopped.

"Matori? Tell the council that the first stages of Phase Two are underway.", exclaimed the Rocket Boss to his trusty secretary.

"Yes, Boss. I'll do it right away.", replied Matori as she hung up the call.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. North Kanto. Late Afternoon.**

"Seriously, Paul? You saw two memories of people using Aura! How can you not believe it?", complained Barry.

"I'm telling you, I don't believe in magic or that kind of stuff, okay? Now, just leave me alone.", exclaimed Paul as he walked away.

"Sheesh, what's his problem?", asked Barry.

"Barry, for the last time, let him believe what he wants! Everyone can have their own opinion!", yelled Dawn.

Kenny stepped up and intervened. "C'mon, Dee Dee, why are you defending him? He just seems like a big jerk anyways.", he said.

"Well, Kenny, I'm just trying to be nice, and since we're traveling together for a while, shouldn't we try to be friendly with each other?", exclaimed Dawn.

Kenny stormed off in defeat, unable to make a comeback towards Dawn.

"Why is Dawn defending that guy? What's her deal?", mumbled Kenny in disgust, until Zoey came up to him.

"You know, she can do whatever she wants, so stop being like that.", said Zoey, which made Kenny sag down even further.

"Oh, great.", muttered Brock. The others ran towards the Pokemon Doctor to check out the situation, and were surprised that they were right near Pewter City.

The Kantonian city skyline was in full display, and there was nowhere to go besides into the big city.

"What are we going to do now?", asked Ash. "We can't attract any attention in the city, so how are we going to go through it?"

"I have an idea, but it'll be risky. We can sneak around the back of the city, where the museum is, and make sure we get onto the north side of Route 3 without attracting any unwanted attention.", exclaimed Brock.

"Well, if that's the only chance we've got, then let's take it.", commented Gary.

The group made their way into the city with their disguises on, making sure to evade any other people.

As the group was running throughout the city streets, Brock motioned the group towards a large building set on a hill.

"There's the science museum, guys. Let's go.", muttered Brock as he sneaked his way towards the museum, and the others followed suit.

Once the gang reached the museum, Brock motioned them to go around the back, and to make sure that nobody was following them.

As they were making their way around the back of the famous Pewter Museum of Science, Cilan had noticed a few people in black sneaking out of a back door while carrying some boxes.

"Come on, Buzz, can't you carry more of these? How come I have to do all the work myself!", shouted a uniformed woman with that black uniform.

"My name is Butch, for Arceus's sake! And you know that, Cassidy!", shouted the other member, who had green hair and was also carrying storage boxes and planting them in a van.

"Be quiet! You'll blow our cover!", whispered Cassidy.

Butch nodded and finished carrying the boxes into the van, and they finally turned around to reveal their black uniforms with a rainbow R stylized on the front.

"What are those two doing here?", whispered Misty.

"You know them?", asked Clemont.

"Yeah, they're also members of Team Rocket, but not as incompetent as Jessie and James.", exclaimed Ash.

While the group was talking amongst themselves, Butch took notice of a few heads popping up behind a door. He pointed towards the door and yelled to his partner.

"Cassidy, we've got some intruders!", yelled Butch. The teens cursed to themselves.

"Everyone, split up!", whispered Brock. Since the Rainbow Rocket agents were so focused on that door, they didn't manage to notice the others scattering to other places.

"Where do you think you're going?", shouted Cassidy as she held Ash in her arms. Luckily, his hood hadn't managed to fall off yet, so the agents did not know who he was yet.

"Ghh… let me… go!", yelled Ash as he tried to get out of Cassidy's grasp and while trying not to let his hood fall down.

"Don't try anything, mister. Now we're taking you to the boss.", exclaimed Butch before laughing maniacally.

As the two Rocket agents were carrying Ash, Butch had an idea. "Hey Cassidy, let's see who's really under this hood, what do you say?"

"Arceus.", cursed Brock to himself. If Botch tore off that hood, then their conspiracy would and and they would be targeted by these guys and the press as well.

"Get… off me… AAH!", shouted Ash as Butch was about to tear off his hood.

Suddenly, a bright blue light emerged around Ash's body, and Butch gasped in fear.

"What… what is that?", shouted Butch, as Cassidy came over from the truck to investigate.

"Biff, what the hell are you doin-AAAAH!", yelled Cassidy as the blue light sent the Rocket Agent flying into Cassidy, making them hit the wall, unconscious.

Ash managed to get back on his feet with his hood still on, and his friends rushed over to him while Cassidy and Butch were still knocked out.

"Uh… my head… ", murmured Ash, still tired from what had just commenced.

Brock turned to stare at him. "Okay, let's get out of here. Now.", he muttered as he directed the group away from the museum and the two Rocket Agents.

Once they were safely away from any other commotion, they took a look at where they were before. Cassidy and Butch had gotten up again, and they looked terrified.

"What the hell was that, Biff? What do you think you were doing?", shouted Cassidy.

"I-I don't know! Either way, let's bolt!", he shouted as he ran towards the truck. Cassidy raced after him, and soon the two were driving away.

"Ash, how did you end up doing that?", asked Barry.

"I don't really know… maybe my Aura activated without me knowing it… ", continued Ash.

"Either way, it was so cool! It really helped us get out of trouble there.", commented Clemont.

"So now what, Paul? Still don't believe what you saw there, huh?", snarked Kenny, trying to rub Paul's apparent beliefs in his own face.

"Hmmph. Whatever.", mumbled Paul as he walked away from the Coordinator, while Dawn shot him another look.

The gang soon began to walk out of Pewter City's west gate, traveling around the north area of the city. That mishap of what happened behind the Science Museum was behind them, and they were ready to move on.

"So, Ash, why were those two even in Pewter anyway? And what was up with those uniforms too?", commented Max.

"Well, at Indigo we were attacked by a group of people with those same uniforms, and so maybe this is just like some new organization or something.", commented Ash.

Brock had caught on to something that Ash had said, and quickly went over to him, and motioned Misty to come as well. When the three of them were walking together out of earshot, Brock began his conversation.

"Ash, when you were talking there, I remembered something.", exclaimed Brock. "On Mount Quena, that man… he said he was the leader of Team Rocket… I think he was the same one at Indigo Plateau."

"That might be true, but how does he remember us? I thought Mewtwo wiped all of the Rockets' memories besides Jessie and James.", commented Misty.

"Yeah… I actually met him again in Unova. I hid my reaction because I knew he didn't remember me, and he was the one in charge of the Rocket operation in eastern Unova.", explained Ash.

"I heard about that… but why is he after us if he doesn't remember us, or barely remembers you, Ash?", said Misty.

"I don't know… ", explained Ash, but he did have a theory. Why was that stupid prophecy getting him and his friends into danger all the time? It was just bad luck of being a world-saving hero, he guessed.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Unknown Location. Evening.**

"Boss, we came as soon as we could. We encountered something you might be interested to hear about.", explained Cassidy.

"Yes, I heard. What is it?", asked Giovanni.

Butch gulped inside his throat. 'Well, boss, we encountered a kid who was spying on us, and we tried to see who he was, but then this… blue… thing came up-"

Cassidy pushed her fellow agent to the side and continued the story. "Well, I was getting the supplies in the truck while Biff over here dealt with the kid, and then this wimp started shouting in fear. I came over to check it out, and then some blue thing came off the kid and pushed Buzz right into me, knocking us both unconscious. When we woke up, we decided to report back to HQ and inform you of our situation.", finished Cassidy.

"Hmm… interesting.", exclaimed Giovanni. "Now, please excuse yourselves. You will be sent out into the region again tomorrow, so be prepared for anything this time."

"Yes, Boss!", saluted both Cassidy and Butch as they exited the office.

"A blue glow, you say… I thought there was only one lineage who still had that power… interesting… ", exclaimed Giovanni. Even though his agents were defeated by a random kid, this incident had brought about a change of plans for the Rainbow Rocket Boss.

"Well, this is a surprise to be sure, but I will make my way past it… like I always have… ", exclaimed Giovanni, as thoughts of new schemes and plans raced through his head as always.

* * *

Well, another chapter is in the books! I decided to give Paul a Kaiba-like attitude towards all this "hocus-pocus magic stuff", and I think it suits him well. Anyways, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	8. VII - Ancient Unearthings

**The Eighteen**

 **Chapter 8**

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Pallet Town. Evening.**

"Clair? Any updates as of now?", asked Lance.

He was talking to the Blackthorn Gym Leader to ask if the teens had reached Dragon's Den yet, and he had filtered in a private server so nobody could trace this significant phone call.

"Sorry, but nothing so far. I have been guarding Dragon's Den for the past few days, and there's no sign of those kids coming anytime. Either they're extremely lost, or they went in another direction.", answered Clair on the videophone.

"I see. I hope they're okay.", responded Lance as he disconnected from the call. He was hoping that these teens would make it to Dragon's Den, and then he would be able to drop the lying act and destroy the conspiracy along with Team Rainbow Rocket, or whatever it was.

Now, he didn't know if these kids had died on the road or were still alive, so this complicated Lance's plans a lot.

He went back up to the guest room in the lab that the Champions had made their personal headquarters for a short time, and opened the door to see his colleagues at work.

"I just got off a call with Clair. The kids haven't shown up at Dragon's Den at all, and I don't know where they could have gone.", exclaimed Lance.

'I think they'll be fine. These kids have traveled before, and they probably know when to stay out of trouble. We should focus our efforts on this Team Rainbow Rocket business, now with the League Challenge postponed.", said Steven.

"You're right, Steven. Now, let's get to work.", continued Cynthia.

* * *

 **December 5, 2002. Northern Kanto. Evening.**

"Pika-chu?"

Ash turned to face his starter. "Yeah, what's up, Pikachu?"

As the group had set up shop for the night, Ash and Pikachu were relaxing under the night sky. Everyone else had gone inside their tents since it got really cold at night, but Ash didn't mind the cool breeze and decided to stay outside for a bit.

"Pikachu… Mew did give me Sir Aaron's gloves… what do you think I should do with them?", asked Ash.

Pikachu just shrugged and made some hand motions, almost signaling Ash to figure it out himself.

"Uh… why do I even ask…", mumbled Ash in laughter, while Pikachu smiled.

Ash reached into his backpack and brought out the gloves, really studying them for the first time. They were navy blue with golden lines etched around the gloves, and a azure blue crystal in the center of both gloves.

"Mew did say I would need them… what does Mew want me to do with them, though?", explained Ash to himself.

As Ash held the gloves in his hand, a blue aura started to form around his hands, and he gasped in fear. Pikachu noticed this and rushed over to his trainer, and shook Ash, which made him drop the ancient gloves.

"All right, this is going nowhere. Let's just go to bed, Pikachu.", muttered Ash, as he put the gloves back in his backpack and stood up, but his hands were still glowing a little

"Pika… ", said Pikachu as he and his trainer walked back to their tent, Ash's hands in his pockets, and sat down in their sleeping bag.

"Ash… could you keep it down? I'm trying to sleep… ", mumbled Misty in her sleeping bag. Ash smiled and lied down.

"Sorry, Mist. I was just thinking about stuff… ", muttered Ash to himself as he went to sleep, but Misty managed to hear him, and smiled as she went back to sleep for the night.

Ash awoke the next morning to find blue sparks coming off his hands again, and quickly hid them in his pockets before exiting the tent, only to find everyone eating breakfast already.

"Seriously, guys! Why didn't you wake me up earlier!", complained Ash, while the group turned to stare at him.

"The early bird gets the worm, Ashy-boy! Or in this case, the breakfast!", teased Gary while Ash rolled his eyes.

"You've got to admit, he's got you there.", explained Drew as he gave Gary a fist bump, while Ash sighed and went to eat some food that Brock and Cilan had saved for him.

"So, where are we heading out today?", asked Iris.

"Well, now that we're back in civilization, I can finally get a signal from my Pokegear, and it looks like we're headed for Mt Moon.", exclaimed Brock.

"Really? I heard it's one of Kanto's greatest landmarks!", exclaimed Trip, taking out his camera.

"Yeah, I've always wanted to go there!", said Clemont.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going?"", exclaimed Barry. The others nodded and started to set off.

The group left their camping spot for the night and started to trek towards the mountain, and they chose to take the route upwards instead of the winding cave paths.

"Didn't we think about taking this path last time, Brock?", asked Ash.

Brock shrugged. "I think we were, but we got sidetracked by that swarm of Zubat, if I remember correctly."

"You've been here before?", asked Serena.

"Yeah, I've travelled here a few times before, including on my first journey.", exclaimed Ash.

"Well, I've never been here, but at least I get to see this view!", said Gary.

Ritchie raised an eyebrow. "Gary, you traveled Kanto at the same time as Ash, right? Then how come you didn't go here?"

"I can explain that. He was too busy with his red sports car and his cheerleaders, right?", snarked Misty.

Gary sighed and hung his head. "All right, can we just get back to walking?", he muttered as he stormed off. The others continued to trek up the path until they reached a clearing.

"Well, we made it. The Mt. Moon Observatory!", exclaimed Brock, as the others immediately went and crashed down on a bench.

"Thank… Arceus… we made it… ", mumbled Clemont as he stretched his aching legs on the bench.

"Come on, Clemont! We need to relax too!", yelled Dawn as she pushed the Gym Leader off the bench and sat down on it.

After a short break to eat lunch and relax, the group walked around the observatory. The views were amazing, and the food was even better.

"Come on, Gary, let's get going!", exclaimed Ash, who was still eating his food after everyone else had finished.

"Do you realize we're in a public place? Don't cause us any more trouble by yelling my name out to the whole area!", whispered Gary as he reluctantly stood up with his food.

"Sorry, let's just get going already.", mumbled Ash as he walked out of the food court.

As he looked around the area, he saw his friends all around the place, admiring the views and taking pictures.

Ash walked up to the railing and was marveled at the sight. He could see the whole region from here, and he could even make out some of the islands down south.

Suddenly, Ash froze, and he gripped onto the railing in fear, knuckles turning white.

"Pikapi?", exclaimed Pikachu, who was on Ash's shoulder, surprised by his trainer's instant change in expression.

Misty was walking over to the railing and saw Ash standing motionless, and Pikachu motioning for somebody to come over.

She ran over to Ash, and shook him a few times. "Ash, what's wrong?", she said, trying not to attract any more attention.

The rest of the gang soon noticed Ash motionless and Misty trying to move him, and they all ran over to him.

"Ash! Ash, are you okay?", exclaimed Brock in fear.

Then, Ash suddenly let go of the railing, making him and the others fall to the ground. Once they got up, they resumed their discussion about what was going on.

"Ash, were you okay back there?", asked Ritchie.

"Sorry… I just… I hadn't been up so high since Prism Tower… ", mumbled Ash. Serena and Clemont immediately understood and went up to their friend.

"Ash, that's in the past now. The only thing you can do is to move forward.", exclaimed Clemont.

Serena was about to say something, but was interrupted by Paul.

"I'm sorry, but could someone please explain what's going on?", he asked irritably, and the others turned to stare at him. Clemont was about to continue, but Ash waved him off.

"Well, the Kalos League ended two weeks ago, and I got in second place. During the awards ceremony, this group called Team Flare attacked Lumiose City with red vines by using a corrupted Zygarde… the winner's ceremony had just ended, but then we heard explosions and investigated… and next thing I know, I'm at the top of Prism Tower.", exclaimed Ash.

"And… Lysandre, whom I had met earlier before the final match… he was holding me hostage to use for Team Flare's goals. He said he was trying to destroy the world and create a new one with the help of his 'chosen ones', and he believed I was one of them."

Misty gasped in shock at this last statement, but nobody seemed to notice, as they were all focused on Ash's explanation.

"He wanted the… the power of my bond with Greninja… and so he tried to take it by using a… a beam… and it hurt. I felt like something was being ripped apart from me, and I couldn't survive without it.", continued Ash, while the others stared in shock.

"I heard about that… gramps told me of a situation in Kalos, but I thought you were going to be safe. I had no idea… ", exclaimed Gary.

"Cyrus wanted to destroy the world and replace it with a new one… but this guy went way too far, that's for sure!", said Dawn.

"Hey, Ash? Sorry about making you talk about that… I had no idea… ", exclaimed Paul.

"It's fine, Paul. I needed to get that off my chest.", exclaimed Ash,who was back to his normal cheerful self in a matter of seconds.

"You said that he wanted the power of your bond with your Greninja… did that bond cause that form change you pulled off at the Kalos League?", asked Max.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, it was some rumored transformation that hadn't happened for hundreds of years, and I was able to pull it off."

"Really? How does it work?", exclaimed Misty, who always was interested to hear about new Water Pokemon.

"Well, supposedly Greninja and I were totally in sync, and that meant that were able to do that, and it feels so weird. I could see what Greninja was seeing, and feel the pain that he felt in battle.", explained Ash.

The whole group winced once Ash finished his sentence, and the raven-haired trainer new he had to elaborate.

"Yeah, it was tough getting it under control. I even passed out in the middle of a battle a few times.", explained Ash.

"Well, good thing you managed to master it, or else you would have passed out in the middle of the Kalos League.", exclaimed Brock.

"Where is your Greninja now, Ash?", asked May.

"Well, I had to leave him in Kalos, because of some after-effects of Team Flare's attack, and only him and the Zygarde Cores could stop that.", exclaimed Ash sadly.

"I'm sure you'll get to see him again!", said Cilan as the group walked back to the visitor center.

As they were walking towards the visitor center, the ground started to shake, and the group stopped in its tracks.

"Uh… do any of you know what's going on?", asked Barry in desperation.

"I'm afraid not!", shouted Drew as the ground began to crack and make massive fissures below. The visitor center building was sinking, and the railing behind them was tilting down the ledge of the mountain.

"What the hell!", shouted Trip as the ground underneath the group gave way and crumbled and sent the group falling into the mountain. As a result, the whole top observatory area was destroyed due to the fissure, and buildings were falling into the mountain caves.

"AAAAAHH!", shouted Max as he hung onto his sister for dear life. The rest of the gang was scared for their lives, as they might not survive this fall.

The group braced for impact, and was about to hit the ground at full speed until they felt a wave of whiplash pull them up in midair, then they were lightly dropped onto the ground.

"What was that?", asked Paul. The gang looked over to see an Umbreon stand on the floor, eyes glowing blue.

"Thanks, Umbreon! You really saved us there!", exclaimed Gary as he went over to his Pokemon.

"I didn't know your Umbreon was that strong, Gary!", exclaimed Ash as he dusted himself off.

"How about we start to find our way out of here!", yelled Iris in exasperation. The others turned to stare at her, and she sighed and walked away, while the others followed.

The group kept walking until they came across a series of voices talking to each other. Ash hid behind a rock and signaled the others to go hide as well while the voices were talking.

"Come on, Meowth! Now you just blew up an entire mountain! What was that for!", exclaimed a high-pitched female voice.

Ash's eyes widened and he turned to stare at the others, who also were in shock.

"Well, I thought I could excavate the place for some more Pokemon fossils!", shouted another familiar voice.

"So what! Now the G-Men will be right on our tail!", said a third voice, also familiar to the group.

"Aren't those people the ones who followed you around, Ash?", asked Drew.

"Yeah, they've been doing it for ages. Wonder why they're here, though.", explained Ash.

As he peeked out from the rock, he saw the trio in black uniforms dragging a crate of Pokemon fossils through the cave, and soon disappeared once they exited the cave.

The gang ran out to see where the trio went, only to see their Meowth Balloon fly into the sky, hurling a crate underneath it.

"Why were Team Rocket after Pokemon fossils?", asked Clemont suspiciously.

Ash shrugged. "I have no idea." He was about to step forward until a swarm of people suddenly surrounded the area.

The group was startled to see a makeshift news crew set up in seconds, while making sure their disguises were intact.

"Hi, I'm Sydney from the Kanto News Network, to bring you all a breaking story! The famous Mt. Moon has been blown up by a mysterious force! We have some witnesses who were here to tell the tale. Now tell me, what did you see out there?", asked the reporter, turning her mic to Ash.

"Uh, my name is Tom Ato, and-", said Ash, but was interrupted by Misty sighing and holding her head in her hands.

"Sorry about that. I was at the Mt. Moon Upper Observatory with my friends over here, and we were having a good time until the ground suddenly split open, making us and the observatory around us collapse into the mountain.", explained Ash.

"Then, we were trying to find our way out, until we saw two people in black uniforms and a Pokemon walk out with what seemed to be Pokemon fossils.", finished the raven-haired boy.

The reporter took the microphone back to Ash and turned to the camera.

"Well, there you have it, folks! This attack on one of Kanto's most historical places might have been on purpose, but what could it mean! Is the whole region under threat? Now, back to you all in our main studio.", exclaimed the reporter.

The news crew packed up in a matter of seconds and drove off, and it was almost like they never even showed up in the first place.

"Seriously, Ash? Why did you choose that name, out of all the things that came to mind?", exclaimed Misty, who was sighing to herself.

"I had to think of something on the spot! And besides, it was a better name than Caesar Salad.", exclaimed Ash, while pointing a finger towards Brock.

"Caesar Salad? What kind of name is that?", asked Kenny in laughter, while Brock mentally sighed.

"Whatever. Now, can we please get out of here. I don't want to be near collapsing mountains ever again.", exclaimed Brock as he began to walk in front of the group, while the others followed suit.

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Pallet Town. Late Morning.**

"What do you mean, an explosion!", yelled Lance into the phone.

The Champions had just caught wind of what had happened on Mt. Moon, and they were not happy.

"Send some agents over to deal with the situation, pronto.", exclaimed the Indigo Champion as he slammed the phone back into the receiver.

Lance walked back to the room to face the other champions, who were waiting for an update.

"There's been an explosion in Mt. Moon, supposedly caused by Rockets.", exclaimed Lance grimly.

The others had expressions of shock on their faces after hearing this report.

"Arceus.", exclaimed Steven. His mouth was wide open in shock.

"What's Giovanni trying to do here? First he blows up Indigo Plateau with some shadow, and then he blows up a mountain?", said Wallace in confusion.

"I don't know. We just have to stand our ground and send agents across the region. Maybe they could help us find out what the Rockets are planning.", said Lance.

"Lance is right. We should focus on what Giovanni is doing now and try to stop it instead of trying to figure out his whole plan.", exclaimed Cynthia.

"I just hope we can stop him.", mumbled Diantha to herself, but luckily nobody else noticed.

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Northern Kanto. Afternoon.**

Ash and the gang had been traveling for a while after the incident on Mt. Moon, and they decided to settle down and take a lunch break.

"Okay, lunch is served!", exclaimed Brock as he brought out plates of food along with Cilan.

"All right! I'm starving for some good food!", exclaimed Ash while he got his food.

Misty sweatdropped as Ash gulped down his food in seconds. "Ash, you only ate a few hours ago!"

"Yeah, so what?", said Ash as he continued to eat his food as fast as possible.

"Just leave him be, Misty! If a guy wants to eat, let him eat!", exclaimed Drew.

"That's what I'm talking about!", said Ash with his mouth completely full while the others stared at him.

Suddenly, the group heard footsteps nearby, and everyone looked at each other worriedly.

"Man, what is that good smell?", said a voice out in the woods, and Ash, Misty, and Brock immediately stiffened up.

After hearing some more footsteps, the group quickly put on their disguises and tried to move out as quickly as possible, until someone stopped straight into the clearing.

A girl with long purple hair and a yellow and black striped jacket stood in the middle of the area, staring at the people right in front of her.

"Ah! Sorry about that!", yelled the girl as she looked at the others. "I didn't mean to get into your place like that."

A disguised Drew stepped up. "It's all right, but why did you show up in the first place?"

"I don't know, I just smelled some food and decided to investigate.", answered the girl, who brought out her hand.

"My name's Casey, the biggest Electabuzz fan on the planet!", exclaimed the girl enthusiastically.

Unfortunately, nobody responded to her greeting, as they were trying not to accidentally reveal their identities to her.

"Okay, so no happy campers, huh? I'll just leave, then.", exclaimed Casey as she turned around and walked off, but not before whirling back around.

Casey's sudden motion made all of the others flinch in horror, especially Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu.

"Wait a second… you three do look really familiar… but I just can't place it.", murmured Casey, and the whole group tensed, ready to leave as fast as they could.

"I must be seeing things, it's probably nothing. I'll see you around, I guess.", said Casey as she left, and the group felt relieved immediately.

As Casey was walking away, her mind was buzzing with thoughts.

"Could it be them?... Well, one of them had a Pikachu… I need to find out more.", she muttered as she started to trek to Cerulean City.

* * *

"Well, that was close.", muttered Gary as he sat down on the ground.

Paul grunted. "You can say that again.", he mumbled as he turned to face Ash. "Where do you know that girl from anyway?"

"I ran into her a few times with Misty and Brock, and she absolutely loves the Electabuzz for whatever reason.", exclaimed Ash, who rolled his eyes.

"Are you serious? The Starmie have been on a hot streak lately! Four titles in five years!", exclaimed Misty.

"Yeah, well they haven't won in two years, while the Machamps won it all last year!", said Gary.

"How about we quit talking about baseball and figure out where we're going next?", asked Iris.

"Well, we could take this route all the way to Cerulean, or-", answered Brock, but he was cut off.

"No! We're not going there, I would be recognized instantly!", shouted Misty, while the others turned to look at her.

"Why not? It's not a bad idea… ", asked Kenny in confusion.

Ash spoke up. "Misty's the Cerulean Gym Leader, so that might be a problem for us.", he said, and the others nodded in understanding.

"As I was saying, we could also take a more uncharted path down to Route 7, which could take us away from Cerulean.", continued Brock.

"That's perfect, Brock. I say we head there right now!", exclaimed Misty enthusiastically.

The group agreed and changed course onto uncharted territory heading south, and the wide path soon turned into a dense forest.

* * *

"And it looks like we're heading into dangerous areas on May's Expeditions… ", murmured the Coordinator to herself, while the others were staring at her.

Gary turned to Ash, who was talking to Pikachu at the moment, and pointed towards May.

"Does she do this all the time?", asked Gary, and Ash looked up and cracked a smile.

"Unfortunately, yes.", exclaimed Ash, while Gary sighed and walked away.

"Tell me about it! She was driving me crazy when we were in Johto and Sinnoh!", exclaimed Drew in exasperation.

"I feel bad for you, man. She drove Brock and I insane during our Hoenn travels.", exclaimed Ash.

As the group kept walking through the forest, they noticed that it was starting to get foggy and the visibility had gone down a lot.

"I can't see a thing in here!", exclaimed Misty, who was starting to get nervous.

Ash went up to his friend and put a hand on her shoulder. "Misty, you'll be fine. Just trust me.", he exclaimed, while Misty's face turned red.

Then, the fog started to get even thicker, and the teens found themselves with nowhere to run.

"What do we do? There's no way out!", exclaimed Ritchie.

Suddenly, a blue streak whipped past the teens, clearing a path in front of them, then stopped for what seemed like a millisecond to them, and was revealed as a quadrupedal figure with rippling water surrounding it, but the rest was covered in shadow.

To Misty, however, the blue image appeared clearer and more defined, and she could not believe what she was seeing.

The Suicune stared at the Gym Leader intensely, and the Legendary Pokemon's body language was enough to tell Misty not to tell anyone of what she was seeing.

Then, almost as it had never been there in the first place, Suicune ran off, leaving a shocked Misty and the others totally confused.

"What… was that thing?", asked Ash in confusion, and it seemed like even Pikachu was at a loss for words as well.

"I have no idea… ", mumbled Gary, who was also in shock.

Misty was silent throughout the others' conversation, equally shocked along with the others, but she was not going to tell the others that what only she saw.

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Cerulean City. Late Afternoon.**

Casey walked into the gates of Cerulean, and immediately looked for a Pokemon Center to heal her injured Electivire, which had gotten hurt in a battle against a Camper on Route 4.

"Hi, can I please heal my Pokemon?", asked Casey as she handed her Poke Balls onto the counter.

Nurse Joy nodded and collected the Poke Balls, and walked into the healing room. Casey then went to the newspaper stacks, and quickly found that day's edition of the Kanto Chronicle, the region-wide newspaper company.

After finding the sports section and reading about the Electabuzz losing for the fifth straight game, Casey put the paper down and sighed. When was her team ever going to win?

Then, a boy around her age came down and sat down next to her. "Hey, I couldn't help but see that you were wearing an Electabuzz jersey. I'm a Starmie fan, personally.", exclaimed the boy.

"Casey Smith, from New Bark Town. What's your name?", she asked the boy as she brought out her hand.

"I'm Johnny, from Viridian City. What are you here for? The gym's closed because of the whole postponement thing from Lance, so now my League season is done for.", answered the boy.

"Yeah, I'm here for a few reasons. I was friends with the latest Gym Leader, and I was also going to challenge the Gym before the season was cancelled.", exclaimed Casey.

Johnny checked his watch, then got his bag on his shoulder "It was nice meeting you, but I have to go. See ya around!.", exclaimed the boy as he went up to the counter to pick up his Pokemon.

Casey waited in the lobby for her Pokemon to be healed, casually watching videos on her PokeNav, until she spotted three tall figures walk into the Pokemon Center.

Casey stood up and walked towards the three Sensational Sisters, who noticed her coming. Daisy remembered her from the whole Team Rocket incident a few years back, and went towards her.

"Casey, isn't it? Did you want to talk to us?", asked Daisy while Lily and Violet looked on.

Casey nodded. "Yeah, because I noticed a bunch of people in the woods a few hours ago, and they all either had hoods or sunglasses covering their faces. I noticed one of them did have some orange hair, but it was hidden under her hood."

The sisters shot straight up. "Do you really think it could be Misty and those other kids?", asked Lily in wonder.

"I don't know, but I just wanted to tell you about it. Keep an eye out for suspicious people covering their faces, all right?", exclaimed the baseball fanatic.

"We got it, Casey.", said Violet.

Casey nodded, and ran off to collect her fully healed Pokemon, and went upstairs to the trainer rooms afterward, leaving the Sensational Sisters discussing amongst themselves in the lobby.

"Do you really think Misty could be alive? Casey did mention that they could be heading this way.", said Daisy.

"I'm not sure, but it's something to think about. We'll just have to wait and see if these people do go into the city.", exclaimed Lily.

Violet looked at her two sisters. "Even if our sister is alive or not, we are the acting Gym Leaders, and we should probably call Lance and tell him about this."

"You're right. Let's go right now!", exclaimed Daisy, and the three models ran across the city towards the Gym as fast as they could, ready to alert Lance of their newfound evidence.

* * *

Sorry if this chapter was a little short, as I was in sort of a rush. I might not be able to upload for around a month due to an injury, but I will try to update frequently once I return. Feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	9. VIII - Crisis in Celadon: Part 1

**I'm back, everyone! I was able to recover faster than expected, and as soon as I was ready, I got to work writing this chapter. This has been my longest chapter yet, and I had a blast writing it.**

 **Here's one review response for you guys, then on to the story.**

 **Sv007: I know that a lot of people use Waterflower for Misty's last name, but I heard that the same source that confirmed Brock's last name as Harrison said that Misty's last name was indeed Williams, and I decided to use that last name for this story.**

* * *

 **The Eighteen**

Chapter 9

Crisis in Celadon - Part 1

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Afternoon. Pallet Town.**

"Hello? Lance? Hi, this is Daisy Williams.", exclaimed the voice through the phone.

Lance sighed as he stared at his phone. Having a former Gym Leader call him was the least of his worries. Public outcry had mainly been directed at him and his colleagues for the way they had handled the incident with Team Rocket, and the news would not shut up about it.

Nevertheless, Lance picked up the phone and put it to his ear.

"Yes, Daisy. I can hear you loud and clear.", exclaimed Lance.

"Thank Arceus! Listen, like, a bunch of trainers coming through Route 3 have seen a group of people all disguising their faces, and it's all the buzz right now at the Pokemon Center.", exclaimed Daisy.

"And how does this have to do with anything, Miss Williams? I wish to not waste my time with this phone call.", said Lance.

"Well, like, if you think about it, isn't it weird? A bunch of people with hoods or shades on, traveling the route in disguise? If I didn't know better I would, like, think that they could be those kids.", said Daisy.

Lance was about to respond in denial and opened his mouth, but stopped once he realized what was going on.

Could those kids be alive? He had watched them run away into the building, but he never looked back after he confronted Giovanni for the last time. Once the building was destroyed, he couldn't find any remains of the teens, but he didn't think that they would be alive.

"I will have to look into it, Miss Williams. I'll give you an update once we find any new information, along with the relatives of all the other teenagers.", said Lance.

"Like, thank you so much! Thank you!", shouted Daisy in excitement and hung up the phone.

Lance sat back down in his chair. He didn't know what to think, but he had to look into this. More importantly, however, the others needed to know about this.

He walked into Steven's office, and saw that he was busy on the phone, as usual. This had been a nice break for Lance, who had not gotten angry phone calls in a while, but that didn't mean the others would get a break like this.

Lance tapped Steven's shoulder and motioned him to come over. Steven nodded and started talking into the phone.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, we're doing everything we can to look into this situation. I'm sorry for your loss.", exclaimed Steven as he set the phone onto the table.

"What happened now?", asked Lance in curiosity.

"Oh, just the usual. All that 'you all are terrible leaders', 'how dare you do this', you know the drill. Anyways, what's up?", asked Steven. He was dying to talk about anything else except repeat the same message over and over again to angry people.

"I got a call from one of Misty's sisters, in Cerulean.", Lance exclaimed, but he paused once he saw Steven point a finger in curiosity.

"Misty, she was the Gym Leader there, right? Water Pokemon Trainer, I presume.", exclaimed Steven.

Lance nodded, and Steven put his finger back down.

"So, she was saying that a bunch of trainers going on Route 3 saw a group of people wearing hoods to mask their faces.", exclaimed Lance.

Steven was confused for a second, until his eyes shot up.

"You don't think… no. It can't be true!", exclaimed Steven in shock.

Lance shrugged. "I don't know. I'm just repeating what Miss Williams said, that's all."

"You're right, this is important! We better get the others now, unless they're busy with calls, that is.", said Steven.

"I agree. And before I forget, some of my field agents have discovered a Rocket base in Celadon. I'm handling that to them, as we have more issues on our hands.

"You got that right.", exclaimed the Hoenn Champion, and at that very moment, his phone rang again.

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Unmarked Location. Evening.**

"Arceus, I was freaking out! What if she saw us! Or recognized us! Or-"

Barry's rambling was suddenly cut off by another voice.

"Will you please be quiet! It's almost like you're drawing more attention to us! Arceus!", exclaimed Drew as he turned back around and walked away.

Luckily, that shut Barry up, and the rest of the group was quiet, except for a few small conversations that were going on.

The group continued to travel across the forest trail until they reached a fork in the road. One path seemingly led to a much wider path, and noises could be heard from that area.

Meanwhile, the other path continued into the forest, the trees covering up even more of the little remaining light.

Brock stopped in between the branching paths, and turned around to face the group.

"The path to the left leads to Route 7, while the trail on the right goes deeper into the forest. So, which way do you want to go?"

Barry raised his hand, and spoke.

"Can we please go to Route 7? I can speak for everyone here when I say that I need a shower, and a nice bed to sleep in tonight."

"You can't be serious! We can't go on a mainland route! We need to hide from people, not be found by them!", yelled Drew.

He was about to continue, but May pulled him back, and Drew eventually gave in and stepped down.

"I agree with Barry, we need to find a Pokemon Center, and soon! It's getting dark real fast!", exclaimed Kenny.

"You're not even being reasonable, you guys! We can't be traveling in plain sight, or people could recognize us!", said Misty.

Kenny, Barry, Zoey, Max, Serena, Ritchie, Trip, Clemont, and Cilan on one side of the fork, while the others stood to oppose them.

Those were Ash, Misty, Gary, Brock, May, Drew, Dawn, Iris, and even Paul.

"Please, guys, stop fighting! Let's just be reasonable and go to the right.", exclaimed Ash calmly.

"No way! I am going to a Pokemon Center whether you like it or not!", said Kenny.

He had gone right in front of the other half's faces when he said that, almost as if he was trying to intimidate them.

However, the other half didn't appear fazed at all, and Paul walked over and shoved Kenny back to the other side with a grunt.

"Please, stop! We need to work as a team!", said Dawn desperately.

"What team? We don't have to stick together at all!", exclaimed Zoey, and she started to walk onto the left path.

The others soon followed her, leaving the other half of the group just standing there, in shock.

"There goes that chance, I guess.", mumbled Brock, while the others nodded.

Ash looked back at the commercial route, and was confused for a moment.

"Wait, where did they go?", he exclaimed, causing the others to notice and ponder the situation as well.

"That is weird, they just disappeared or something… ", exclaimed Dawn.

The rest of the remaining group suddenly felt an immense silence, as if it was almost too quiet.

The group whirled around, only to face the trees and the shadows. "Who's there? Show yourself!", said Ash.

"Why, I thought you'd never ask!", shouted a high-pitched voice. Ash tried to turn back around, but felt a instant flash of pain and fell to the ground.

He tried to sit up, only to feel more pain, and collapsed on the ground, vision fading rapidly.

"Bring them to the base. Now!", said the same voice from earlier.

Ash, who couldn't see a thing, felt himself being carried, and thrown somewhere before falling completely unconscious.

* * *

 **December 6 2002. Unknown Location. Evening.**

"Giovanni, sir! Reporting for duty!"

"What is it?", asked the Rocket Boss. It had been a normal day at most, as normal as it gets when you're trying to take over the world.

Giovanni had been through the usual phone calls and updates over the course of the day, including updates from his recon agents about their assignments.

The Rocket Boss smiled. His plans were going extremely well, and he hoped with this phone call, he would have nobody stopping him or getting in his way at all.

"Sir, we have the target, but it appears he had some friends with him. We have apprehended all witnesses on the scene."

"Good. Take them to the Celadon base at once.", exclaimed Giovanni.

"Yes, Boss! 009 out."

The call ended, leaving Giovanni smiling. Now, his last target was captured, and he could rest easy for a while.

He pressed a button and a screen came up

"I have all my Elites set in place. You should prepare to do the same."

Five shouts of "Yes sir!" came through the screen, and Giovanni disconnected from the call.

Everything was set in stone. Threats to his operation had been captured, mobilization was beginning in other fronts, and the start of the captures would be imminent.

* * *

"Come on, Jessie! Speed it up!", shouted a cramped James.

"I'm moving as fast as I can in this thing!", replied Jessie.

"I just don't wanna get squished by you two!", said Meowth, who was in the back.

The three Rockets were crawling through the vents of their base at the moment, hoping to find some information as what was going on in the basement levels.

Jessie held out her flashlight, and smiled.

"There it is! There's the vent hole!", exclaimed Jessie.

"Oh, thank Arceus… ", said James in exhaustion as Jessie opened the vent hole and accidentally dropped it onto the floor moments later.

CLANG!

The scientists heard the sound and turned, but then left it alone and went back to work,

"Well, that was close, wasn't it?", exclaimed Meowth sarcastically while scrambling to get a view.

"What are they doing in there!", said James as he took a look at what he was seeing.

The basement of the Rainbow Rocket base was massive, and it had a whole level of supercomputers and scientists working on secret projects.

There was an enormous cylindrical chamber in the middle, surrounded by a circular control panel which had people working furiously on it, while screens on the walls showed some data.

Inside the tube was a different story. To the trio, it looked like something was in the middle of coming out of a hole inside of the tube, but half of it was still stuck.

The visible half, however, was terrifying. It was a mess of black ooze in some places, but in others, a sharp triangular body, devoid of all light.

The Rocket Trio stared in awe at this sight, having no words to say.

"What… what is that thing?", asked Jessie.

"I don't know… but it's terrifying!", said James.

"For once, I gotta agree with ya, Jimmy!", exclaimed Meowth in terror.

The trio was silent for a moment, still staring at the immense being in the tube, until sudden alarm bells started to ring throughout the base, and through flashes of red you could see the ooze retreating back into where it came from.

" _Red alert! Red alert! Subject retreating immediately!_ , came a voice through the loudspeaker, and that sent the scientists into a frenzy.

Many voices could be heard from the ground level, and scientists were running around and pushing buttons at the same time.

"It needs more energy! It can't stay in this dimension for much longer!"

"Quick! Put the subject into temporary stasis!"

The workers pushed a few more levers and buttons, and the reaction was almost instantaneous.

The tube suddenly became bright white, and after the light died down, the trio saw that the "subject" had stopped moving completely in the cylinder, and the hole in the middle of the chamber had stopped fizzing out as well.

One scientist stood on top of a balcony and was speaking into an earpiece. The trio craned their heads to the left to see what he was doing at that time.

"Sir! We have an energy shortage, and we had to put the subject into temporary stasis.", exclaimed the scientist.

The room was silent, until another voice resounded through the room, that being the Rocket Boss.

"I see… very well. I will commence the capture initiative. Send package recruitment equipment to me.", exclaimed Giovanni.

"Yes, sir!", exclaimed the head scientist as he shut off the connection.

During all of this action, Jessie, James, and Meowth were still staring at it all through the air vent, now full of questions.

"So dis is where da boss is all da time!", exclaimed Meowth, holding a paw up in the air.

"I can't believe nobody knows about this except for the Executives, that's for sure.", said an irritated Jessie.

"I think I've seen enough. We should get out of here!", said James, clearly panicked.

He tried to turn around, but the vent was too small for that kind of movement, and with one other full-sized person and Pokemon in there too.

"What do we do! We can't back out of here!", said Jessie, who was also panicked by then.

"Did you hear that?"

The trio froze, and slowly turned their heads to face each other.

"We're doomed, aren't we… ", said Meowth sadly.

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Unmarked Location. Evening.**

Ash opened his eyes with a start, only to find himself surrounded by darkness.

"What the… where am I?", he mumbled, as he looked at his surroundings,which was hard for him because he could barely see a thing.

His backpack was still with him, which was surprising because the most of the Rockets besides Jessie, James, and Meowth weren't that incompetent, in his opinion.

He fumbled for his belt, only to see that his Pokeballs were missing, and Pikachu wasn't there with him as well.

As his eyes adjusted to the low visibility, he saw that he was in some sort of cell, with bars blocking his way out.

"Well, just another day for Ash Ketchum… ", he mumbled as he tried to move around in the cell, only to find out the cell was much smaller than he thought.

He soon heard another voice call out in one of the other cells, and was genuinely surprised by this one.

"Hey, Ash! Is that you?", exclaimed the voice of Gary Oak, which caused Ash to sit up and respond.

"Gary? Yeah, it's me! Are you with the others?", said Ash, who was optimistic now.

"Well, I think they're all in separate cells, but I think we're the only ones that are up right now. The others might still be knocked unconscious.", said Gary.

"You're right. Do you have any idea how to get out of here?", asked Ash hopefully.

"Unfortunately, I just woke up at the same time as you, Ash, so I don't know any more than you do.", exclaimed Gary.

Ash sighed. This past week had gone by so fast for him, he never really had any time to process what danger they were in. One week ago, he was in Kalos with his friends, but now he was trapped inside a cell with no escape, most of the world thinks that he's dead, and he just got captured by the organization he was running from.

"What are we going to do now… ", mumbled Ash as he lied back down on the hard cell floor, only to sit up again a few minutes later once he saw more light from the what seemed like the other end of the room.

Ash turned to face the light, only to see Gary holding a flashlight, and scanning his surroundings with it to make sure what room they were in thanks to the added light source.

"Good thing I found this flashlight in my backpack, Ashy-boy!", exclaimed Gary, who was grinning.

"Uhhh… remind me to fine whoever put me here… ", mumbled Barry, who was just starting to regain consciousness. Gary, confused, turned to Ash, who just shrugged.

"Yeah, he always says stuff like that. It's no big deal, really.", said Ash.

Soon after, more and more people got up, and soon realized that they were all trapped here, with no for, of escape.

"This is just great. What's next, the building is going to explode and kill us all?", said Drew angrily.

"Drew, stop that! At least try to be optimistic for once!", yelled May from across the room.

"Whatever you say, September… ", mumbled Drew to himself, and he was extremely lucky that May didn't hear him say that, or she would have went ballistic.

"Now that everyone's up, we can discuss a plan. How are we going to get out of here?", asked Brock.

"I don't think these bars will break so easily, and we don't have any of our Pokemon with us, so that leaves out all our options.

Ash sighed in his cell. He could try to use an Aura Sphere to break the cell walls, but he didn't want to risk his health and the safety of his friends, so he decided to leave that alone for a while.

"So… I guess we're stuck now, aren't we? We just have to wait until something happens… ", exclaimed Max, and the others had grim expressions on their faces.

"Well, it looks like today's your lucky day!", shouted a high-pitched female voice from the other end of the room.

The group froze. They recognized this voice from when they were ambushed in the woods, but Ash had this nagging thought that the voice sounded familiar.

"What are you waiting for? Set them free.", said the voice. "They have an appointment with Archer at once."

"Yes, ma'am!", shouted a number of voices. Ash and the gang looked up to see that a number of Rainbow Rocket grunts had opened their cell doors, and Ash was soon dragged out into the main corridor.

"Take them to the Executive Hall.", said the voice, and with added light Ash and the others could see who was talking clearly.

A young woman was standing at the entranceway, wearing an elite Rainbow Rocket uniform and cap, which held down her tucked-in blond curls, and holding what looked like a black tulip, but from Ash's experience, that staff was bad news.

"What do you want with us… Domino?, mumbled Ash as he was dragged towards the door by some Grunts.

"Oh, that's for us to know and you to find out, Ketchum… ", she hissed in his ear.

Ash cringed at the thought. Not only were they trapped in one of their enemy bases, but their identity had already been discovered by said enemy, leaving them defenseless and scared.

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Outside of Celadon City. Evening.**

A G-Men agent walked up to the edge of the hill on the north side of Celadon City, observing the city skyline. The city was mostly residential, with mostly housing arrangements lining the city, except for the Gym, some office buildings, and the Pokemon Center.

Lance himself had assigned her and her team personally for this mission, and she knew she couldn't fail. She had served in the Indigo G-Men for five years now, and this was her ultimate test.

"Commander, what's our plan of attack?", asked a member of her squadron.

The mission commander turned to her squadron. "Alright, listen up! Here's the short version. We disguise ourselves as Rocket Grunts, and then blow up the base from the inside. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Commander!", shouted the rest of her squad.

Having her fellow agents refer to her as Commander brought her newfound optimism. She had never led a G-Men mission before in her life, mostly staying at the Indigo Base in her early years, training and traveling with Lance.

But this was her big break. Her chance to prove herself to Lance was right in front of her, and she would complete this mission for her leader, even though Lance and the other Champions had set up shop in Pallet for a temporary headquarters.

She still couldn't believe that last fact. She never returned home in five years, but her her boss is set up there? Maybe the Professor helped Lance out in that regard, she thought to herself.

Soon, the commander's thoughts drifted to her time in Pallet. Having two best friends was great for her, as her parents weren't around often, so she often found herself with her friends' parents and relatives, who treated her like a daughter to them.

But her past didn't matter now. She had to complete this mission in order to secure the future of her region that she had strived to protect in her oath five years ago.

Leaf tied her brown hair back into her cap, and shook herself out. She was ready, and she could not fail.

"Squadron, move out!", she shouted as her team walked behind her in the dark.

After doing some reconnaissance with her night-vision goggles, she found a suspicious-looking building called the Celadon Game Corner, which still had its lights on, even though it was close to midnight.

Leaf opened the door, trying to look as casual as possible. Immediately after entering the building, she signaled her squad to surround it, making sure nobody would escape.

"Hello, miss? How can I help you?", exclaimed the receptionist.

To any normal person, she looked like a normal girl, but Leaf quickly spotted the Rocket logo on her watch. It was easy if you were a trained professional at it, which she was after five years of intense training.

"Yes, I was just wondering if any of the machines were still open?", said Leaf, trying to make small talk and stall the worker to that her squad could prepare for attack.

"Well, we were going to close in a bit, so the machines just got shut down for the night.", said the worker quickly.

Leaf figured that the Grunt obviously wanted her out of the building as quickly as possible, so she decided to take her out as quickly as possible.

"Ah… that's a shame… for you!", exclaimed Leaf as she delivered a perfect roundhouse kick to the face, knocking the disguised Rocket grunt out cold.

"All right, Venusaur, use Razor Leaf!", Leaf whispered as she released her trusty Venusaur, which soon made quick work of the remaining alarms and security cameras in the area.

She turned to check the receptionist's desk, and luckily for her, she found a spare Rocket uniform and some Pokeballs in the drawers. She slipped on the Rocket uniform to use as a disguise, and opened her X-Transceiver.

"This is Commander Greene, ground floor is secure. Do you copy?", reported Leaf to the rest of her squad.

"Yes, Commander. Outside patrollers have been taken care of. Ready for infiltration.", came a voice through her X-Transceiver.

Leaf's squadron came into the ground floor of the Game Corner, all with stolen Rocket uniforms.

"Very good, squadron. Now let's blow this top to pieces.", said Leaf, who then pointed to Venusaur.

"Now, use Take Down!", said Leaf, and Venusaur smashed into the back wall with extraordinary force. Once the smoke and dust cleared, a metal door was revealed in the back right corner.

Leaf recalled her Venusaur and opened the door. She then took out her flashlight and looked down the area, only seeing a straight path.

Members of Leaf's team went to work, putting up a "We're Closed", sign, and repairing the back wall as best as she could so that people wouldn't get suspicious.

"We're going in.", exclaimed Leaf to her squadron as they followed her into the depths of the Celadon Rocket Base.

* * *

 **December 6, 2002. Unknown Location. Evening.**

Ash didn't say anything and just kept walking. Soon after leaving the cells, the Rocket Grunts had put Ash and his friends into chains, and Domino began escorting them to wherever they were supposed to go.

It had been a while since they left the capture ward, so Ash assumed that this base was very big and was a massive underground facility for Rocket in Kanto.

"Okay, so can you tell us where we are?", asked Iris. Domino turned to face her with a frown.

"We're at the main Kanto Rocket base, duh? Where else did you think we were!", said the Rocket Elite grumpily.

Clemont adjusted his glasses."Well, considering the amount of time that we were unconscious, we could have at least been transported to another region or-"

"STOP TALKING!", shouted Domino, and her Grunts turned to face the group. "I can't waste any more time with this, and besides, you have places to go anyway."

"Can you at least tell us why you even captured us in the first place?", asked Ritchie, who then shrunk in fear due to the Grunts closing in on him.

"Well, since I'm in a good mood today, I'll give you a hint. It has to do with him.", exclaimed Domino, pointing to Ash, who sighed and faced the group.

"Ash? Well, that does make sense why you wanted to attack us at Indigo Plateau… ", mumbled Drew, while the others nodded in understanding as well.

"Hmph. Now, as I SAID, we have places to go. So get a move on it!", shouted the Rocket Elite, causing the group to jump in fear, then eventually keep walking, because they really had no choice and no chance of escape.

Ash and the gang reluctantly followed the Rockets throughout the base, and it was clear that this was massive. This was probably one of Rocket's many bases throughout the world, but Ash could tell from how much time they had been walking that this base probably stretched for miles underground and went unnoticed by the public.

Soon, the group entered a hallway which looked like it came straight out of one of James's family mansions, unlike the rest of the base, which had low visibility and dirty floors.

This hallway was well lit and had marble floors, and each door they passed had a name on the front, and a Rainbow Rocket Logo engraved on the door as well.

Domino soon stopped in front of a door on the side, that was right behind a large set of doors at the end of the hall.

She went to the keypad and typed in a code, which let the door swing open. The Rocket Elite walked inside the room, and stood next to a desk when Ash and the group walked in.

The room looked like a company office room, with a desk with some computers, and paraphernalia on the walls and desks, but they were all Team Rocket-related.

Ash had to look twice to see the man sitting in the chair right next to the desk, facing towards the back wall.

The man soon turned around to face the teens, and the group finally got a good look at him. He had light teal hair and pale skin, and he was wearing a white suit with a Rainbow Rocket logo on the shirt pocket.

"I see… so these are our guests, I presume?", asked the man to Domino, who stood right by him.

"Yes, Archer. I captured them on a forest trail near Route 7 and brought them here. They turned out to be the very targets Giovanni was certain he had killed at Indigo.", explained Domino to the Rocket Executive, who had a look of understanding on his face.

"My, my. You're very lucky Giovanni isn't here to deal with you right now, but I believe I can devise a similar form of interrogation.", said Archer, while the group looked on.

"You see, Team Rocket always kept tabs on people that we felt were threats to our organization, and you-", he said as he pointed to Ash, "are no exception to that matter."

"You and your friends here have attempted to stop us on a number of our plans, and I must say that we Executives are impressed with you. Stopping Operation Tempest was one of the things that brought you on our radars, to be frank.", exclaimed Archer.

"Wait… what's Operation Tempest?", asked Brock, who was confused.

"The Unova Survival Crisis, as you might have heard people refer to it. Even though that plan was a failure, we have improved from that mistake, and now you cannot stop our plans for world domination!", exclaimed Archer, who was cackling in laughter by the end of his speech.

"Okaaay… this guy is way in over his head.", mumbled Trip, who then got shocked by Domino's electric tulip staff.

"Do not disrespect a Rocket Executive like that!", shouted Domino, as Trip was electrocuted and fell down to the floor.

"Now, as I was saying, we might have failed to eliminate these threats at Indigo Plateau, but we control all the cards here. Take them to the execution room!", shouted Archer.

Domino nodded, and motioned her Grunts towards the teens, who were extremely surprised.

"Execution… room?", exclaimed Max, full of fear.

"We're screwed, aren't we.", said Dawn.

* * *

 **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Midnight.**

Leaf and her team were scouring the hallways of the Celadon Rocket Base, disguised as Rocket Grunts. So far, they had only walked through a section of the base, yet nevertheless planting explosives all around the area.

"Explosives on this hallway set?", asked Leaf to her team, which was busy attaching the small-yet-deadly detonators to the walls.

"Yes, Commander.", reported one member of her squad, trying not to talk loudly or draw any extra attention.

"Good. The low visibility of the base will keep the detonators hidden. Now move out!", exclaimed Leaf as she turned into the next hallway of the huge Rocket base.

The next hallway was wider and had better lighting, so it would be harder to place detonators there without getting noticed by the security cameras.

"Commander, what do we do? We'll get spotted trying to set the explosives.", whispered one of her teammates, and Leaf stood there, thinking of a plan.

"We don't set any in this sector. We've placed enough to destroy some of the base, and it would be hard for the Rockets to recover after that loss.", exclaimed Leaf, but one of her teammates raised a hand.

"Commander, what about the rest of the base? Shouldn't we be able to cover more of it, while this one is an exception?", exclaimed the G-Men agent.

Leaf turned to him and nodded. "You're absolutely right. Half of you split up and cover the other hallways, and place detonators. I'll keep in touch through the communicator channel. Got it?", she said as she pointed towards half of her team.

"Yes, Commander. Right away.", exclaimed her team as one half walked towards the base sectors that the squadron had not located yet.

"Okay. Squad 1, follow me.", exclaimed Leaf as she walked towards the end of the hallway, followed by her team of agents.

Once Leaf reached the end of the hallway, she discovered that there were windows on both sides of the door. Leaf motioned her team on both sides of the door and once she broke the lock on the door with her knife, she also cracked open the door a little.

She threw a ball through the door, which then expanded and stuck to the back wall, away from any people in the room.

"Thank Arceus for these long-distance bugs.", muttered Leaf to herself as she put on an earpiece, ready to listen to the conversations inside.

"Now, with your real deaths, Team Rainbow Rocket will have no more threats to its existence, leaving this world open for our control!", exclaimed a voice from inside that Leaf knew well. Archer was one of Giovanni's favorites and lead Executives, and Lance had not hesitated to show her what he was capable of during her G-Men training.

"Don't you think this is too extreme for you? If you really want us to die, then how about just leave us in the woods or something?", exclaimed an unknown voice. Leaf tried to take a look inside, but the windows were tinted, so she couldn't see a thing.

"Well, but we tried that at Indigo, and it seems like you guys are all still alive. 009, please start the beam initiator!", exclaimed Archer's voice into Leaf's headset.

Leaf cringed. First Archer was in the room, and now Domino as well? Good thing half of her squad was busy planting more detonators in the other hallways, or else she wouldn't survive this encounter.

"Please, don't do this! Do you at least have some dignity to not let us die like this?", exclaimed a different voice that was just as familiar to the G-Men commander.

"Ash… ?", whispered Leaf. How could he be here? Last she heard, he had just finished the Kalos League and was returning home to Pallet. Leaf always liked to know what her childhood friends were up to during her time as a G-Men agent.

"Yeah, what he said! We really don't want to be disintegrated, that's all!", shouted another voice that was located in the room.

"Arceus… Gary too?" It took Leaf a moment to think, but her thoughts delivered a sad conclusion. Her two best friends from Pallet were in the room right in front of her, and she was powerless to stop them from dying at the hands of Team Rocket, unless…

"Squad 1, follow me! Begin infiltration formation Delta!", exclaimed Leaf as her squad formed pairs and brought out their Pokeballs.

"Ready when you are, Commander!", exclaimed her agents, as they released their Pokemon, including Arcanines and Machamps, while Leaf brought out her Venusaur as well.

"Now, fire!", exclaimed Leaf, as her squad Pokemon fired off Flamethrowers and Close Combats to break the heavy-duty windows, while her Venusaur used Take Down to blow the door wide open.

As she ran into the room with her remaining squad, she instructed her teammates to disarm the ringing alarms and security cameras, much to Archer's and Domino's dismay.

While her teammates were taking care of the operation, Leaf turned to face the Executives. "Well, it looks like you've gone to a new low, haven't you! Death by Hyper Beam sounds pretty dangerous to be using on teenagers, don't you think?", she exclaimed, as the Executives snarled.

"Okay, who are you anyway?", asked Domino as she brought out her tulip staff, while Archer tried to escape, but was surprised by the Pokemon guarding the entrance.

"Well, 009, that's a need-to-know basis.", exclaimed Leaf as she began to face off against the young Rocket Elite. "And you don't need to know!", she finished as she kicked Domino into the back wall.

Once Domino and Archer were out of commission, Leaf went to work disarming the Hyper Beam generator and freeing the captive teenagers. "Leave them here.", she instructed her squad towards Domino and Archer as she went to the group.

"Thank you so much, ma'am! How did you know how to do that!", said Max, who was intrigued by the thought.

Leaf checked to see if the security cameras were still offline, and when they were, she continued. "Well, I'm with the G-Men, so that was just a normal mission for me.", exclaimed Leaf. As she was facing the group, she could see Ash and Gary turn to each other with looks of shock on their faces.

"What's their deal?", asked Leaf as she pointed to Gary and Ash, while the others shrugged.

"I just have something so ask, ma'am. So, just who are you?", asked Gary.

Leaf smiled. This was the moment she had been waiting for the past five years now, and she couldn't wait to see the shock on Ash and Gary's faces.

Leaf took off her cap, which had covered most of her face in the low lighting, and threw it into the air. The group was finally able to get a clear look at their savior, and they didn't know what to expect, save for Ash and Gary.

Leaf turned to her childhood friends, who were staring at her, jaws wide open.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

* * *

 **December 7, 2002. Off the coast of Shamouti Island. Early Morning.**

"So, those kids got off the hook again? I wouldn't expect less, seeing as they have slipped out of my grasp for years now. But that is no matter to me now.", exclaimed Giovanni into his earpiece. He was standing inside a Rainbow Rocket helicopter, and was flying towards Shamouti Island in the cover of darkness.

In order to satisfy his main subject and keep it in this dimension, he would have to give it lots of ancient energy-energy only present in Legendary Pokemon.

"Giovanni, sir! Approaching land target in T-minus one minute!", announced his pilot.

Giovanni smiled to himself. If he was successful here, those kids wouldn't be able to stop his plans, so they wouldn't be a threat to Rainbow Rocket's plans anymore.

Even if he let those teenagers go free, their families would still think they were dead, so they were practically in a lose-lose situation, which made them even more powerless to stop his takeover.

Giovanni stepped onto a platform, which brought him up and outside the chopper. He was directly in front of the main village of Shamouti Island, and all he had to do to wake the elemental titans was to "annoy" them with some well-placed Hyper Beams.

"Now, fire!", shouted the Rocket Boss, as three separate Hyper Beams flew out towards the three elemental islands, causing massive explosions on all three.

A few seconds later, three figures flew out of the destroyed islands and right in front of Giovanni's helicopter, and he smiled once they got into full view.

Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres were all right in front of the Rocket Boss, ready to eliminate the threat to their islands.

Giovanni pointed towards his gunner, who was carrying some sort of Pokeball.

"Do not throw the Dark Balls yet. There might be a greater prize if we strike one down.", exclaimed Giovanni, and the gunner obeyed.

Suddenly, the three Legendary Birds started flying around the helicopter, and the pilots began to take evasive action, swerving the helicopter out of the way of the titans and their elemental attacks.

Eventually, the helicopter was flying all around Shamouti Island, being trailed by the legendary birds, and that was enough to draw the attention of the island's people.

Giovanni, who was holding on to the helicopter railings, decided to call out his Flygon and get on its back, while carrying some Dark Balls in his pockets as well.

"Now, use Hyper Beam!", exclaimed Giovanni, and his Flygon released a powerful beam of energy that pushed Giovanni back thanks to its recoil. The attack took a clean hit on Articuno, striking it down into the water.

Giovanni commanded Flygon to lower down, closer to the main village, where all the people were currently gathering in the main square. They were observing this spectacle of defeat, and wondering why this man was targeting their island and their legends.

As Giovanni was descending on his Flygon, he could hear the shouts and cries of the natives, and some attempted to yell in his face.

"Why are you doing this? What kind of man are you?", asked one of the natives, who had stood up from the rest of the crowd.

Giovanni ignored the village's cries while he focused on his helicopter, which was battling the birds and avoiding their attacks.

"Giovanni, sir! We've taken hits and lost our main beam generator!", exclaimed the pilot's voice through the Rocket Boss's radio.

Giovanni frowned, and responded. "Fall back for now. Arm the Dark Balls and I'll take care of those birds." The helicopter fell back, and the birds halted their assault for a short time.

In the midst of cries and protests by the helpless villagers, one shout got Giovanni's attention from up on his Flygon. "Where is the Chosen One? Surely he could save us now!", exclaimed an old man, who the Rocket Boss assumed was the village elder.

Giovanni laughed and turned to face the villagers. "Don't you watch the news? Your Chosen One is dead!", he exclaimed, leaving shock and horror on the faces of the natives.

Giovanni smirked to himself. Of course he knew about the Shamouti Prophecy, that was exactly why he had chosen to eliminate Ketchum and his friends in the early stages of his plan, and that was why he had come to the island as well: To capture the birds, and maybe snag a Lugia as a bonus for his test subject.

"No… how could this happen?", came a cry from a young girl who couldn't have been older than sixteen. Giovanni just ignored her and focused on the birds. Articuno was up in the air again, but still very weak from that direct Hyper Beam attack.

Giovanni reached into his pocket and grabbed some sort of Pokeball, which was black with lines running vertically on both halves, and instructed his Flygon to come closer to the titan of ice.

He flung his odd-looking Pokeball at the Articuno, which traveled straight toward the bird at blinding speed. Articuno was hit by the Pokeball, and when it opened, purple waves of energy surrounded it and sucked it into the Pokeball, which flew back to Giovanni.

The Pokeball rotated a full 360 degrees to signify a critical capture, and it rang in his hand, alerting Giovanni that the Titan of Ice had been caught.

Giovanni smiled wickedly. "I knew those Dark Balls from Vicious's old squadron would work.", he mumbled to himself. "This would be enough for my subject, but I believe I have a second chance to get more… ", he finished as he saw the water underneath him ripple.

The citizens of Shamouti stared in awe as the rippling water transformed into a massive vertical cyclone of water, which spun for a second or two before breaking apart, and revealing the Beast of the Sea in all its glory.

The Rocket Boss smirked. This operation was going exactly as planned. He already had one legendary bird, which would raise temperatures around the world due to the weather not being in balance due to Articuno being captured, but this was the motherload right here.

If he was successful right here, those teens wouldn't be able to stop him, and he would have the power to rule the world with an iron fist.

"Ah, yes. I was expecting you, Lugia.", exclaimed Giovanni while he put the Dark Ball in his pocket.

* * *

 **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Early Morning.**

"Leaf? Is that really you?", asked Ash, who was absolutely dumbfounded by this revelation.

Gary was just standing still, mouth wide open in shock. He definitely couldn't process what was happening at this very moment. At the same time, Ash went up to his childhood friend and gave her a bear hug.

"Leaf, it's been so long! Where have you been!", asked Ash, while Leaf hugged him back. "Oh, nothing much, just being a G-Men agent for five years.", exclaimed Leaf as she embraced her friends after over five years.

Then, Leaf went up to Gary, who was still motionless. "What's the matter, Garebear? Meowth got your tongue?", she snarked playfully, and then ran up and gave him a hug.

Once he got crushed by Leaf's hug, Gary finally regained the ability to move his body and returned the favor as well, all while the rest of the group was standing there, not knowing what was going on.

"Okay. I still don't know who this girl is, but Garebear is a great enough nickname for me to like her already.", exclaimed Misty to Brock, who nodded, but was obviously infatuated with the agent already.

Ash put his arms around Gary and Leaf and turned to face the group. "Guys, this is Leaf. She was my and Gary's friend when we were kids.", exclaimed Ash, and Leaf smiled at the group.

"Just one thing… you're the same age as Ash and Gary, yet you're a Commander in the G-Men? How did you get that far up the chain of command?", asked Ritchie.

"Well, I entered training when I was eleven, and I've been in the organization since. I tried out Pokemon training for a year before that, and I still have my starter Pokemon, Venusaur, with me, which I got on the same day as Ash and Gary.", exclaimed Leaf, and the others nodded in understanding.

"So you were one of the two other trainers who left Pallet that day! Ash never did mention you, though.", exclaimed Misty.

Ash faltered for a second. "Well, I was so caught up with a new journey every time I made new friends, so I sort of lost track of that and stuff… ", he stammered before Leaf cut him off.

"It's fine, Ash. At least I got to meet all of you anyway, and save your lives too.", said Leaf.

"Oh yeah, thanks so much for that! We would have been toast if you didn't step in!", exclaimed Iris.

Leaf just shrugged. "It's no problem, just part of my job.", she continued, while the others nodded.

All of a sudden, alarm bells started to ring again, and the squad's Pokemon were driven apart by more Rockets and their Pokemon. Leaf quickly recalled her Venusaur and found a back door to the big room.

"All right, we can reconnect later. Now, we run! Squad 1, keep holding them back!", shouted Leaf to her team, then she swung open the door, letting the others go in before she did.

"How did they find us? I thought you knocked that Archer guy out cold!", asked Kenny, who was crammed along with the others in the small back hallway.

"He probably had help, or the security tapes were taken just before I shut them off. Either way, let's keep moving.", exclaimed Leaf.

While they were walking, Ash turned to Gary and started talking to him. "Leaf's really changed, hasn't she?", he exclaimed to his friend.

Gary shrugged. "Well, I guess that's from five years as a G-Men agent, but she still seems like our friend.", he said, and Ash nodded.

At the same time, Paul kept his head down and walked with the others. He still didn't feel comfortable in this large group of people, and so he decided to not say much, and only to comment if he felt like he had a good point to make.

He tapped Dawn on the shoulder, who was walking in front of him, and she walked over to his side to talk to him.

"Yeah, Paul, what is it?", asked Dawn. She was walking slower to get next to Paul, while Leaf was up ahead, having decided to be a lookout for danger in the front end of the group.

"I don't trust her. She could be a spy for Team Rocket or something.", whispered Paul, which made Dawn raise an eyebrow.

"Do you really think that? She seems really nice, and I trust her, but… ", mumbled Dawn, who was beginning to think for a moment.

"Like I said, it's just a hunch. I don't know for sure yet. Just keep your eyes open.", exclaimed Paul.

"Okay, but why did you only tell me this? You should take it up with Ash or Gary, since they know a lot about her.", said Dawn, who was confused.

"Well, Ketchum and Oak could be biased, since they all were friends, and I doubt anyone else would take me seriously. So thanks for listening.", said Paul, whose last sentence was spoken very quietly.

Dawn beamed. "I still trust her, but I'll keep my eyes open.", she exclaimed. "And, you can talk to me anytime.", she finished, and smiled.

Paul gave a faint smile and walked alongside Dawn. He didn't know why he only trusted Dawn. He only knew her through Ketchum, and that was very distant. He was still knew to this whole "group of friends" thing, as he had always traveled alone, but Dawn felt like an exception to him.

At the same time, Dawn wondered why Paul had wanted to talk to her only. She didn't know him very well, and he wasn't a nice guy during her Sinnoh travels with Ash and Brock, but he seemed different now, like he was willing to talk to others and make friends, which Dawn appreciated. It was always nice to help somebody out, and Paul was no exception.

Suddenly, a series of what seemed like small explosions rocked the small hallway, and the group shrieked in fear. To them, it felt like a small earthquake that was making the path collapse in front of them, but it was nothing compared to the amount of detonators that Leaf had placed in the other hallways.

Once the small pathway came to end, the group found themselves facing a split set of paths, just like the one they had faced in the late afternoon. Before anyone could make a suggestion on where to go, Leaf stepped in front of the group.

"I say we go to the right. It looks well lit, so there could be an open skylight we can exit through. Got it?", exclaimed Leaf and the others nodded and followed after her on the right path.

Leaf soon went to work radioing her squad, and telling them to run out of the building once she gave the signal to detonate the explosives.

"Leaf, do you have any idea where we're going?", asked Brock curiously. The G-Men Commander turned to face him, then responded.

"Well, I'm just trying to find an alternate exit, and I hope we can find one in this hallway. My job here was to blow this base to pieces with my team, and I want to get you guys out before I can give the signal to detonate the explosives.", exclaimed Leaf, while the others nodded in understanding.

As the group was walking down the pathway, the light became better, yet Leaf was still suspicious. They hadn't run into many Rocket Grunts on this path, yet this base seemed to be crawling with them in other sections of the base.

Leaf soon noticed a small circular outline in the ceiling, which she assumed was the bottom of one of the city's manholes. She motioned the group to come with her, and pointed to the outline.

"I could get this open, and that would lead us to a manhole, but you need to look for any Rockets while I get this done. Sounds good?", exclaimed Leaf.

"You got it. It's the least we could do for you, seeing that you helped us out earlier.", said May, and she along with the rest of the group went along the path to look for any patrolling Grunts and officers.

"Use Razor Leaf, and then Vine Whip!", she commanded her Venusaur, and the Pokemon swiftly obeyed. The Razor Leaf damaged most of the ceiling surrounding the manhole, and the Vine Whip allowed the circular outline to be removed from the ceiling.

"The cover's open. Let's go!", whispered Leaf, as she directed the group to the open hole. However, just as the Ash began to climb up into the hole, an attack that Leaf recognized as Air Slash swept across the corridor, causing Ash to lose his balance and fall back down onto the ground.

The group looked down the corridor to see a bunch of Rainbow Rocket Grunts approaching them, while Leaf's complete squadron ran to her.

"Commander Greene, we had to deactivate the explosives, as the Rockets could have set them off with their Pokemon's attacks.", exclaimed one of her squadron, and Leaf nodded.

"Understood. Once the coast is clear, I'll re-activate them and give the signal once we're all out of here.", said Leaf to her squad and the teens.

Then, a battered Archer stepped in front of the Rocket Grunts and smirked at the crowd of people. "You know, you can't take down a Rocket Executive that easily.", he snarked, while the Rocket Grunts released their Pokemon, which included multiple Nidoking and Weezing.

"It's not just you, Archer. I'm taking down this whole base, even if I bring myself down with it.", spat Leaf.

Ash and Gary were shocked at this tone of Leaf's personality. She was now willing to do anything to complete her mission, to maybe sacrifice herself to save others and destroy the Rocket base. This was nothing like the nice and laidback Leaf they knew from childhood.

"Hmph. You had your chances, but this ends now. Attack!", yelled Archer, and the Pokemon obeyed his command.g

The Weezing unleashed their Smokescreen attack, causing the whole corridor to be filled with smoke that blocked the group's vision. Then, the Nidoking started to fire off Hyper Beams, which narrowly missed the group, who were leaning against the wall, multiple times.

Through the smoke and devastation, Leaf made out a door near where they were standing, and ran into the crossfire to see if it was unlocked. To her surprise, it was, and she ran back to the group.

"In here!", Leaf yelled, as she motioned the teens and her squadron to the open door, and they all ran for their lives into the smoke and Hyper Beam attacks.

The gang and the team all ran into the room as fast as they could, leaving Leaf the last one standing, making sure that everyone was safe. Archer noticed this, and motioned the Nidoking for another attack.

"Fire it over there!", shouted Archer manically, as the Nidoking unleashed a multitude of Hyper Beams at Leaf and the room.

Leaf reacted almost instantly, opening the door, running into the room and slamming the door back as fast as she could, attempting to block the Hyper Beams as best as she could, then she ran to the other side of the room and ducked for cover as blasts rained all around her.

Once the attacks stopped, Leaf opened her eyes and got to her knees, while everybody else was still on the floor in hiding. Somehow, the door was still intact, with only a few small holes dotting its otherwise clean frame.

Leaf peeked inside the holes, only to see Archer and his Grunts lined up right outside the door, waiting for the moment where they would walk out and surrender.

Leaf grimaced. Her squad and her friends were all trapped, and she knew this was the had always gotten herself out of hot messes in training, but this was the real world, and she had no idea how she could get out of this one.

* * *

 **So, that's it for this chapter. This is the first part of a two-part mini-arc, so expect even more action in the next chapter! As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	10. IX - Crisis in Celadon: Part 2

**I'm back, everyone! This is the first update of April, and it's a big one. This was a really interesting chapter to write, based off of last chapter's cliffhanger and what would happen next.**

 **Here's a few review responses, then on to the story.**

 **Nutellagirl: Paul and Dawn honestly feel very easy to write about together than any of the over pairings I have planned for this story, and I had a blast writing their interactions together, and thanks a lot for the support.**

 **brad: Yes, I know Snowpoint City is in Sinnoh, not Kanto. That was just a typo from stupidly copy-and-pasting the date headers in earlier chapters.**

 **LadyBlue21: Basically what I said above. It's really fun writing Paul and Dawn in the story, and I'm glad that people really like these interactions.**

* * *

 ** _The Eighteen_**

 _Chapter 10_

 _Crisis in Celadon - Part 2_

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Pallet Town, Kanto. Early Morning.**_

"Lance, this is an emergency! Report!", shouted a voice through Lance's radio, which was on his desk right beside him.

The Indigo Champion, who had fallen asleep on the desk the night before, awoke to the sound of his panicking agents. He shot straight up in his seat, and then instantly regretted that move.

"Are you kidding me!", he hissed once he hit himself on the back of his chair, then grab

Lance soon got himself up and picked up the radio, which he brought to his ear. "This is Lance. What seems to be the problem, agent?", he asked groggily through the radio.

"I'm sorry for waking you up like that, sir, but this is important. Our scanners at the Saffron base just picked up word that Giovanni is heading towards Shamouti Island.", exclaimed the agent through the radio, and Lance shot up in his seat for the second time that morning.

"What the-are you serious? I'll be there as soon as I can. Just keep giving me updates, Agent Dobbs, you understand?", exclaimed the Indigo Champion.

"Yes, sir. Also, we still don't have word from Commander Greene and her team from Celadon. I was worried that-", said the agent, but Lance cut him off in the middle of his sentence as he exited Professor Oak's laboratory.

"Please, her name is Leaf.", huffed Lance, causing a faint stutter from the other side of the radio. "And besides, I know she'll be fine. I trained her exactly for this.", he finished as he climbed onto his Dragonite and started to direct the Pokemon towards the Orange Archipelago.

"Shamouti Island, huh? That's almost off the map, though. Why would Giovanni be over there?", muttered Lance to himself as he flew south to the Orange Islands. The Rocket Boss was obviously planning something that Lance didn't know about, and that was huge because this could be another devastating blow to his administered region after Indigo Plateau was bombed.

His body language didn't exactly show it, but Lance was worried. For himself, his region, and what Giovanni was truly capable of. If Giovanni hadn't even scratched the surface of his power at Indigo, then Lance was absolutely terrified what he could be doing now at Shamouti Island.

Back in Pallet Town, an alarm suddenly started to ring, causing the rest of the Champions to groan as they were slowly awakened from their short sleep.

"Uh… what time is it… ", mumbled Wallace groggily as he got up, but he was still practically asleep on the inside.

Steven found the source of the alarm, and turned it off, and soon discovered that it was his own PokeNav Plus, fresh off the assembly line.

"Sorry guys, it was my PokeNav. I'll try to set it up today so this doesn't happen again.", exclaimed Steven sheepishly, while the others glared at him.

"Thanks sooo much, Steven.", said Cynthia sarcastically, who was also basically half asleep at this point. "Now we're all up, and it's _already_ 2 in the morning.", she finished, as she put her hands on her hips.

"Just wait one second!", exclaimed Diantha, who was normally a quiet and well-mannered person. "Where are Alder and Lance?", she asked, and that made the Champions finally wake up inside.

"Yeah, where are they anyway?", exclaimed Steven as he started to search the room. Unsurprisingly, he discovered Alder happily dozing off on the sofa like nothing had ever happened.

"Uh, guys, I found Alder, but try not to wake him up.", said Steven into the other room, and the Champions stared at each other, as if they were saying "Who even is this guy?"

Suddenly, Cynthia's Poketch started to beep rapidly, and the Sinnoh Champion fumbled to get it and answer the call.

"Cynthia! Giovanni is heading towards Shamouti Island, and Lance already went to face him there. He might need backup, so the Indigo G-Men division told us to call you and notify you of this situation.", exclaimed the holographic image from her Poketch, and the Sinnoh Champion attempted to keep a calm face through this terrifying message.

"Uh, I just have one question. Where's Shamouti Island?", asked Diantha curiously.

Cynthia turned to face her colleague, then responded. "It's a small island located in the Orange Archipelago down south. We better get there quickly, or else we're done for. Let's move out!", exclaimed Cynthia, as she ran out into the Oak Corral, and called out her Garchomp, which she immediately got on.

Steven brought out his Metagross, then Mega Evolved it, and got onto its back and started flying in the air along with Cynthia and her Garchomp, while Wallace brought out his Milotic and started Surfing on the water on its back

Diantha, however, released her Gardevoir and subsequently Mega Evolved it, and the Embrace Pokemon started to charge up a long-distance Teleport while Diantha held on to her Pokemon.

"Wait a minute. Aren't we forgetting Alder?", asked Steven, who was clearly confused.

Cynthia shrugged and turned to face her colleague from Hoenn. "It's best to leave him in Pallet. I think he's more of a danger to us rather than Team Rocket, don't you think?", asked the Sinnoh Champion.

Steven chuckled. "You've got a point there.", he exclaimed as he flew off on his Mega Metagross. He was happy that the other Champions weren't so serious and acting rigorously, because that allowed him to break the determination with some well-timed one-liners, which he felt always lightened the mood of any situation.

Meanwhile, Cynthia ws riding on her Garchomp, quietly discussing the situation in her head. Millions of thoughts were racing around in her head. Why was the Rocket Boss at Shamouti Island? What was he planning to do there? And lastly, what was his endgame plan?

Cynthia spent a few minutes reflecting on those three questions, all while not finding a single answer. She knew there was something special about Shamouti Island, but she couldn't remember what it was, which made her furious.

She was the Sinnoh Champion, the greatest expert in ancient mythology the whole world over! But how could she not remember one single island smack in the middle of the Orange goddamn Islands, who didn't even have an official League?

In the middle of Cynthia's intense thinking session, she found a faint memory of her first year in her mythological studies, about an ancient prophecy about a "Chosen One" that hadn't been fulfilled yet and was said to just be a myth, but she could recall only one line from that prophecy.

 _And thus the world shall turn to ash._

From then on, a whole lot of memories sprang up from the depths of Cynthia's mind, leaving her with a startling prediction of what Giovanni was going to do on that island.

In the summer of 1998, there was a weather crisis stemming from the water around Shamouti Island that lasted for only about a day or so, but it brought extreme climate change that inspired many conspiracy theorists to believe that the prophecy had been "fulfilled".

Next, Cynthia remembered that while looking at Ash Ketchum's trainer file after she had met him in 2001, she saw that he competed in and won the unofficial Orange League in the summer of '98, right after the 20th Annual Indigo Plateau Pokemon League Conference.

These two recollections slammed together in Cynthia's mind to create a startling conclusion that left the Sinnoh Champion sick to her stomach. Giovanni had already succeeded in wiping out the world's "Chosen One", and now he was heading for more.

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Early Morning.**_

Leaf leaned against the back of the door, and put her head in her hands. This whole operation was in ruins. Herself and her squad was trapped in this room inside the Celadon Rocket Base, and so were a bunch of teenagers rumored to be dead for almost a week, two of which she knew from childhood.

How was she going to get out of this one now? The only thing she knew for sure was that Lance was going to be absolutely furious at her, if she even got out of this place alive.

"Oh… Arceus… ", mumbled Leaf. In these moments, she was beginning to regret all of this. Impulsively joining the G-Men at age 11, training with Lance for the majority of five years, and accepting his promise as mission commander at only 16 years old. She was too young for this, and she had put her squadron and her friends as well in total danger.

"Commander?", came a voice from the other side of the room. Leaf looked up for a moment to see who it was, revealing the source to be one of her team members, then she looked back down. She didn't want to be seen by her subordinates and her friends like this. It would ruin her reputation even more than it already was.

"What is it… Jones?", mumbled Leaf, who was trying her best not to cry.

"I… uh… what's our next step at the moment?", asked the G-Men agent sincerely, while Leaf still sat at the foot of the door.

"Well, we're going to have to get out of here somehow, assuming if we get past the Rockets right outside this door, and if we do, the whole base would be onto us in seconds… there's no hope.", muttered Leaf, whose statement completely deflated everyone's attitude in the room, even the teens, who had just started to get up off the ground.

"Leaf, don't put this all on yourself. We're all in this together.", said Ash, who was trying to comfort his friend, but Leaf didn't listen.

"I'm just a kid… why did I accept this mission in the first place?", mumbled Leaf sadly. She had immediately accepted Lance's offer only a few hours earlier, but now she was extremely regretting this impulsive decision.

"Leaf Greene! Just what do you think you're doing?", came a shout from the other end of the room. Gary had stood up and walked toward his friend, who had lifted her head off the ground.

"You're a G-Men agent, for Arceus's sake! Get up and lead your team!", yelled Gary, and Leaf felt scared, but she knew that Gary wanted her to be back to normal.

Gary faltered for a moment. "The Leaf I knew would get up in an instant! You want to be that fearless leader, right? Then lead!", he shouted, tears flying down his face, and the others felt the same sadness as well.

All the while, Leaf's mind was racing. Even though she was in deep trouble, she had her friends, and her team, and they were always a big help to her throughout her life, and so Leaf put her arms down and smiled.

Leaf got up from the floor, straightened herself out, and held out her hand. "Fine. You want me to lead, don't you?", she said, while Gary looked at her, then he smiled and shook his old friend's hand.

"All right. It's a deal, then.", said Leaf, filled with newfound confidence. She then turned to the door, and looked to the peephole, only to still see the Rockets and their Pokemon right outside.

"We're still surrounded, so we can't try to escape. There could be a hole leading up to the next floor, but the security cameras might catch us there, too.", exclaimed Leaf, while her team nodded.

"We'll stay here and keep the Rockets busy. You still have the detonator?", asked Jones, who was the second-in-command in the squadron. Leaf nodded and pulled out a cube with a few wires coming out of it, and a switch in the center under a protective cover.

Her team saluted her and turned back to the door, ready for any incoming Rockets, while Leaf turned to the teens and sent out her Venusaur.

"Let's try this again. Venusaur, use Razor Leaf, then Vine Whip!", commanded the G-Men Commander, as the Seed Pokemon created another circular hole in the ceiling using Razor Leaf, then brought down the hole with its Vine Whip attack.

"I'll go in last, to make sure you're all safe. Got it?", said Leaf, and the group nodded. Ash readied himself, then jumped into the hole and found a ledge to grab.

He grunted as he pulled himself up into the hole, and once he got his eyes into the ceiling, he could see a system of vents in between this floor and the one above him, then dropped down.

"There's a bunch of vents in the middle of this floor and the one above. Do you think we could climb in there?", asked Ash, while Leaf considered the current situation.

"It may be small, but it's our only chance. We've got to do it.", said Leaf, which led to sighs from the other teens.

"You know, normally I would object to this, but it's either this or we die, so I'm going in.", said Ash as he went into the ceiling hole and started to crawl through the vents.

"I'll fine all of you if I get all dusty!", shouted Barry as he was helped up by Ash, while the others sweatdropped at the scene unfolding in front of them.

Soon after, the rest of the gang climbed into the vents, leaving only Leaf and her team left. The G-Men agent turned to her squadron, and gave one last salute.

"Thanks for being a great help guys. I'll see you on the other side.", exclaimed the commander, and the others responded with a salute of their own towards their leader. Leaf smiled and then climbed into the vent, making sure to put the ceiling cover back in place before crawling behind the other teens.

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Shamouti Island. Early Morning.**_

Giovanni felt like cackling on top of his Flygon at the moment. He had already captured Articuno within his new Dark Ball model, and now he had another chance to capture Lugia, the master of the elemental titans.

He saw the Beast of the Sea, focus his attention on him and his Flygon while Moltres and Zapdos were flying past the Rocket helicopter, and watch as Lugia started to charge up a massive Aeroblast.

Giovanni commanded his Flygon to take evasive action, and the Pokemon dodged the beam of aerial energy, all while the island's natives watched in horror.

As Giovanni flew away on the back of his Flygon, he saw a faint speck in the distance that was slowly coming closer. As the Rocket Boss continued to dodge the rounds of Aeroblasts being shot at him, the speck came closer and soon revealed itself to be Lance riding on his Dragonite.

"Arceus! Just what I needed… ", cursed Giovanni, as he attempted to back off from Lugia's attacks, but was stopped by Lance, who went over to him.

"Stop right there, Giovanni! You're under arrest in the name of the G-Men!", exclaimed Lance as he flew on Dragonite towards the Rocket Boss, who was fumbling to take the Dark Ball containing Articuno out of his suit pocket.

"Dragonite, use Light Screen! Trap him inside!", commanded Lance, as the Dragon Pokemon set up a protective barrier that boxed in Giovanni from all sides.

"You're coming with me, Giovanni.", muttered Lance as Dragonite grabbed the Light Screen box that held the Rocket Boss captive along with his Flygon. The Indigo Champion then turned his attention to the Rainbow Rocket helicopter that was being targeted by Moltres and Zapdos, and commanded Dragonite to fly towards the battle.

Lance then felt a surge of recoil on himself and Dragonite, and looked down to see a broken Light Screen, and Giovanni flying away on his Flygon.

"Dragonite, turn back! Get them!", shouted Lance as the Dragon Pokemon made a quick 180 and flew faster toward the escaping Rocket Boss, whose Flygon was charging up a massive Hyper Beam.

Flygon felt another shock of recoil as it let go and released the Hyper Beam, and it almost made Giovanni fall off his Pokemon as a result. He managed to recover and sit back down on its back, and saw the carnage in front of him.

That fully-charged Hyper Beam cut through the sky, much more powerful as the ones used by league-challenging trainers. The destructive force only grazed Moltres and Zapdos, causing the helicopter to veer away as fast as it could, but it did strike Lugia in the side.

Giovanni smiled as Lugia fell and readied another Dark Ball for capture, but he felt a blow on his Flygon's left side, and he managed to see Lance and his Dragonite finishing up a Slam attack as he and Flygon were shot through the sky.

Meanwhile, Lance was going after Giovanni when he heard rushing wind from behind him, and he looked back to see Cynthia and Steven flying up to him on their Garchomp and Metagross, respectively.

"We were thinking you could use a little help up here, huh?", said Steven, while Lance chuckled.

"Yeah, it's been real bad. I don't know where Articuno is, and Lugia just fell onto the shore. Moltres and Zapdos are fighting the helicopter Giovanni took with him, and what else could go wrong?", said Lance, trying to lighten the mood.

"Good to know. Diantha is on the island helping out the natives, and for Alder and Wallace… let's just say we didn't want to disturb their sleep.", said Cynthia sheepishly as she flew off on Garchomp towards the Rocket helicopter.

Lance commanded Dragonite to follow Giovanni, who was falling back, and Steven raced after him on his Metagross. The Rocket Boss was shocked to see two Champions flying toward him at top speed on their Pokemon, and he immediately flew back. He was almost near the elemental islands surrounding Shamouti Island, and far away from when he originally started.

"It's over, Giovanni? Where's Articuno!", shouted Steven, trying to confront the Rocket Boss, who seemingly had nowhere to run. On the other hand, Giovanni cackled madly and brought out a different-looking Pokeball.

"Articuno, you ask? It's right here in this Dark Ball!", shouted Giovanni, and completely startling Lance and Steven. While the two Champions were confused, the Rocket Boss noticed it was his time to strike.

"Flygon, use Dragon Pulse! Wipe them out!", exclaimed Giovanni, as his Flygon unleashed a beam of draconic energy, completely catching Lance and Steven off guard and sending Steven flying off his Pokemon and into the air, while Lance managed to dodge at the last second.

Diantha, who was helping the natives along with her Gardevoir, suddenly heard a gigantic blast from up in the air. She looked up to see two figures fall out of the air and heading straight for the water.

"Now, Gardevoir, use Teleport!", commanded the Kalos Champion, as the Embrace Pokemon channeled some psychic energy and transported itself into the sky.

Gardevoir ended up right near Steven in the air, and grabbed him. Steven felt a jolt as he was grabbed by Gardevoir, and was then transported onto to the ground of Shamouti Island.

"Steven! Oh, thank Arceus you're safe!", exclaimed Diantha, rushing up to him. Steven opened his eyes to see his colleague right in front of him, and shot up in an instant.

"Okay… thanks. But Lance is still out there!", said Steven worriedly, and Diantha's face turned into that of shock and fear.

"Arceus… ", muttered Diantha, as she was standing there and doing nothing, while Steven had maintained his composure and regained the Kalos Champion's attention.

"Come on! We have to do something!", said Steven as he called over his Mega Metagross and hopped on it, leaving Diantha to settle the panicked islanders.

Meanwhile, Lance was still struggling against Giovanni and his Flygon, avoiding any powerful attacks he could. He couldn't let Giovanni get away with Articuno, as he knew from a few years back that if these elemental titans were captured, the weather could be seriously affected as a result.

He could even feel the weather getting warmer although it was December, as the temperature had increased due to the Titan of Ice not keeping the weather in balance.

"Dragonite, use Twister! Finish him off for good!", shouted Lance as Dragonite unleashed a powerful draconic tornado that swept through Giovanni, sending him and Flygon in the midst of a torrential cyclone, holding on for dear life.

As the Twister attack ended, leaving Giovanni down but not out, the Rocket Boss heard a gigantic explosion from his left side, which sent out enormous shock waves that could be seen from all around the area.

Once the shock waves had cleared, Giovanni and Lance turned in the air to see the Team Rocket helicopter that Giovanni had brought with him completely wrecked and falling into the water.

Then, rising out of the destruction came Cynthia on her Garchomp, flying towards Lance, who came to greet her.

"So, what happened over there?", exclaimed Lance jokingly as the Sinnoh Champion flew over to him on Garchomp, both turning their attention to Giovanni.

"Well, I had to do something! What do you think?", asked Cynthia, while Lance shrugged and turned back to the Rocket Boss, who was busy talking to someone on the phone.

"So, only one will do… I see. I'll be there shortly.", muttered Giovanni on the phone, and subsequently shut it off right after. He then looked at Lance and Cynthia, and came up with one last plan.

"You won't be taking Articuno anywhere, not if I'm gone!", cackled Giovanni madly. "Use Hyper Beam!"

Flygon let loose one last destructive beam onto the two Champions, while Giovanni flipped around and flew away, cackling like a madman.

More and more shock waves appeared in the air all around, stretching out for miles. The natives and Diantha looked on in shock and fear as the explosions rocked the sky for miles, and voices rang out among the community.

"What was that last one!" "Who could be doing that?" "What happened to Lugia?" There were voices shouting from many people on the island, and Diantha and Gardevoir were having trouble keeping the villagers from a revolt.

"Now, now, calm down! The G-Men will handle this!", exclaimed Diantha, but her shouts were barely heard compared to the public outcry going on at the moment.

Once the smoke in the air cleared, Lance and Cynthia found themselves unharmed, while Dragonite was keeping a tight Light Screen in front of the two Champions to protect them.

"What the… where's Giovanni?", exclaimed Lance, looking around to find any trace of the Rocket Boss, along with Cynthia, who also seemed confused.

"All I want to know is how we got through that Hyper Beam unharmed!", exclaimed Cynthia, while scouting the area for any traces of Giovanni or his Flygon, while Lance shrugged and noticed something terrifying.

"That doesn't matter! We have other things to take care of!", shouted Lance as he flew over to the island's shore, where Moltres and Zapdos were lying, obviously weak.

"Right!", said Cynthia as she flew over towards the island's shore and followed Lance. Once they reached the shore and solid ground, they went right over to Moltres and Zapdos.

"Don't worry, we'll have you healed in no time… ", said Lance as he gave some Super Potions to Moltres and Zapdos while Cynthia radioed for backup.

"Yes… this is Cynthia. We need medical agents immediately and some large transport vehicles for a Moltres and Zapdos… I'm not kidding. Got it?", exclaimed Cynthia as she hung up her PokeNav and walked towards Lance and Steven, who had flew down and joined the others.

Lance walked toward Lugia, who was also beached on the shore. He began to deliver some Super Potions onto the Beast of the Sea, healing its wounds for the time being.

"You know what, make that an extra-large transport vehicle. There's also a Lugia stranded here. You'll find my coordinates on my PokeNav tracker… I'm not kidding!", said Cynthia, who then continued to talk on her PokeNav.

Suddenly, five figures appeared onto the island's shore, recalling their Pokemon and running up to the Champions.

"Lance? Is that you? We came as soon as we heard!", exclaimed a voice that Lance recognized. Drake, the Orange League Supreme Gym Leader, ran up to him, followed by his Gym Leaders.

"What happened here?", asked Rudy, looking out onto the scene in front of him. "And where's Articuno?"

"Whatever happened here, it's bad. We were only told of an emergency, and nothing else.", said Danny, leaving Steven to provide some details.

"Giovanni struck again. He came for the Legendary birds, and he got one of them. With Articuno gone-", said Steven as he was cut off by Cynthia.

"The balance will shift. The temperature's already getting hotter due to one titan missing. It's just like four years ago.", exclaimed Cynthia as she took off her jacket.

"Four years ago was terrifying… what's going to happen now?", said Cissy, who was full of fear.

The sound of a helicopter rotor began to fly out around the area, catching Lance's attention immediately. However, instead of having to face more of Team Rainbow Rocket, the helicopter revealed itself to be that of the Orange Islands Broadcasting Network.

"Unfortunately, we don't know what he's going to do with Articuno, but we do have a bigger problem right now.", said Lance as he pointed up into the air.

"The media."

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Sunrise.**_

"Can you please move faster! I'm so cramped in here!", shouted Iris inside the vents. The group was forced to crawl single file through the vents if they had any hope of escaping the Rocket Base, as Grunts were crawling the halls, aware of the teens' appearance at the base.

Along with that troubling fact, they were also trying their hardest not to look at the people in front of them's butts, because that was a disturbing thing to stare at while they were in a vent system.

"Tell that to whoever's in the front!", said Drew as he continued to crawl through just like everybody else, besides the extremely cramped space and low visibility.

In the front of the line, everything was normal for Ash, besides the fact that they were crawling through the vents of a Team Rocket base just to escape, until he found a dead end, and stopped short right near it.

This subsequently caused everyone else to bump into each other in the cramped vent, leaving them confused and making noise that could be heard from outside.

"What's going on, Ash?", asked Leaf from the back, making sure to keep her voice down. As she waited for Ash to respond, she heard a sound coming from her G-Men X-Transceiver, so she opened that up and looked at her updates.

"We've hit a dead end, and I don't see anywhere else we could go.", exclaimed Ash, but Leaf was silent. She couldn't stop looking on the article that was on her X-Transceiver screen.

 _Shamouti Isles Attacked - Articuno Captured_

Leaf couldn't believe it. First Giovanni blows up Indigo Plateau, now he has a Legendary. What else could the Rocket Boss be capable of?

After a while, Leaf seemed to snap out of her silence and answer Ash, who had been waiting for a few minutes now. "Well, I don't know where to go. Are you sure you can't see any more ways to go?"

Ash looked straight in front of him for a good minute, trying to find a way through even with the low visibility and low lighting up in the vents, until he found himself closing his eyes, begging to himself that he would find a way out, until something changed.

The formerly pitch-black view of Ash's closed eyes were replaced with blue outlines of what seemed to be people inside the base, and he could make out outlines of trees and plants to the left, signaling fresh air.

As soon as it happened, Ash's eyes shot up, his irises reverberating a blue glow that lit up the wall beside him until it changed back to brown. Ash smiled, knowing that he had finally found a way out.

"We can go left. I don't know why, but we can.", said Ash, and the rest of the group was confused as to why he randomly said to take a left.

"Are you sure? How do you know you're not leading us into another trap?", asked Drew suspiciously.

Ash shrugged. "Just trust me and go left. It's our only way out of here.", he explained as he began to crawl left, into a much wider vent space, and the group reluctantly followed him through.

"Psst! May!", whispered Drew inside the vents. The space was much wider than the previous vents, so people were able to crawl next to each other instead of a single file line.

"Yeah, Drew? What is it?", asked May, who was crawling next to him inside the vent.

"I was just wondering about why Ash said to go left. Do you think he knows what he's doing?", said Drew, trying to get another opinion on his thinking.

May thought for a moment, then answered. "You have to learn to trust him. I traveled with Ash for almost two whole years, and in that time I would have probably died if not for his quick thinking.", she exclaimed.

Drew looked confused for a moment, until he realized that she wasn't kidding. "Wait… you're not serious, are you?", he asked.

"We didn't just do normal Contests and Gym Battles, you know.", said May with a smile, and Drew just looked dumbfounded. It seemed that he really didn't know a lot about May.

"All right. If you say so, May.", exclaimed Drew as he continued to crawl through the vents, along with the rest of the group, trying to find a way out as soon as possible.

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Pallet Town. Sunrise.**_

Delia Ketchum opened the windows of her home to welcome in the sunlight. She hadn't been in the best of moods ever since Ash had died, and that was understandable. The only company she got were from Professor Oak and Tracey, who were also grieving.

She then felt a hot breeze come in through the open windows, heating the whole house up. She went to check the heat system she had recently installed with the help of Professor Oak, and to her surprise, it was on the same temperature it had always been since the weather had gotten colder in time for winter.

Delia stepped outside, and the weather felt almost 20 degrees hotter than it was yesterday, and she could see other stepping out of their houses to observe this phenomenon.

Suddenly, Professor Oak ran down from his laboratory, followed by Tracey to meet the crowding villagers, who had gathered up in the town square.

"People of Pallet Town, I bring grave news. The Shamouti Isles have been attacked, and Articuno has been captured.", exclaimed the professor with a grim expression on his face.

The townspeople went into a fury. Voices rang out throughout the crowd, and Professor Oak was trying to get people to calm down.

"Due to Articuno's capture, the weather has been affected, so be warned for rising temperatures over the next few days.", said the professor as he stepped down from the makeshift podium he was standing on.

Delia then walked over to Oak after the commotion had died down. "Will this be like four years ago?", she asked, and the professor thought for a moment before responding.

"Unfortunately, yes. The weather has become unbalanced, and temperatures are already soaring throughout the world.", said the professor, and Delia's face turned grim. It couldn't get any worse, she thought. Not after all that had happened since the start of the month. But could it?

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Shamouti Island. Morning.**_

Cynthia looked on as the news helicopters flew away after another huge scoop. The public was going to be at all of their throats now, for how they let Giovanni get away with another heinous crime.

"How? How did we let him get away with it?", asked Luana, who had been silent for most of the time she had been here.

"I might have an answer.", exclaimed Cynthia, and the others turned to listen to her explanation.

"This island has an ancient legend passed on for generations, basically saying that a Chosen One was needed to save Lugia, who would come to help if Articuno, Zapdos, or Moltres were captured.", said Cynthia, but the others looked confused.

"What does some fairytale have to do with anything?", asked Rudy, who didn't understand the purpose of what Cynthia was saying.

"When I was first studying ancient myths, I came across this prophecy, and one line struck me as we were coming over to the island.", said Cynthia.

Lance looked on, eager to hear what the Sinnoh Champion was about to reveal, and so did the others. "What was the line?", asked Steven.

Cynthia paused for a moment, and then delivered. "And thus, the world shall turn to ash."

This left the others even more confused than they were before, and they didn't know what she was going to say next.

"Guess I'll have to try a different option. Do you remember the weather crisis four years ago? The one where Moltres and Zapdos were captured by some collector?", asked Cynthia, and the others nodded.

"Yeah, I had to deal with so many complaints after that. It was terrible.", said Drake, and Cynthia was sure they would know now.

"Well, who won your league four years ago, Drake?", said Cynthia, and at that very moment, in front of the regional champions, the Orange Crew's jaws all dropped.

"You… you can't be serious, can you?", sputtered Danny, who was in shock.

"Unfortunately, I am very serious. Giovanni planned this all along.", exclaimed Cynthia. "He got rid of the Chosen One so he could grab Legendary Pokemon and add to his power."

Steven stepped up towards Cynthia, not knowing what was going on. "Wait a minute. Who is it?", he asked, and the Gym Leaders all turned to Drake to give a response.

Drake stepped up, knowing that from here, everything from here was about to change.

"Ash Ketchum."

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Early Morning.**_

After a while of crawling through more vents, and the conversations that ensued from such crawling through vents, Ash was able to see the grille of the vent cover in front of him.

"Leaf! I found the vent cover!", whispered Ash, but loud enough so that Leaf, who was in the back, could hear him.

"Great! Can you try to open it up?", asked Leaf, and Ash obliged. To his surprise, the vent cover came off extremely easily, and Ash found himself looking at some sort of arcade store.

"What do you see, Ash?", asked Gary. After a long time of crawling, the group was eager to get out and breathe in some fresh air again.

"Well, it's just a bunch of slot machines and arcade games.", exclaimed Ash while looking at the scene.

Leaf smiled. "Great! You can get out of the vent. We're safe now.", she said as Ash immediately fell down on the floor from the vent hole.

After picking himself up, he began to help the others out of the vent, until be noticed a doorway that led down a dark hall that looked suspicious.

Leaf got onto the ground herself as Ash was staring at the doorway, and she noticed his expression. "Oh yeah, that was the way my squad and I came into the base. This game corner is a front for Rocket's operations in Kanto.", explained Leaf.

"Can we just get out of here? I want to breathe fresh air again! Is that too much to ask?", said Dawn beggingly, and when nobody did anything, she just opened the door.

As soon as Dawn stepped out of the Celadon Game Corner, she felt the heat and immediately took off her scarf. Once the others walked outside, they also took off their warm layers usually used for winter.

"It's the middle of December. Why is it so hot out here?", asked Ritchie, and the others seemed to agree with him.

Leaf, however, was thinking to herself, until she came upon an unfortunate conclusion. "This may be one of the side effects… ", she mumbled, but the others caught wind of it.

"Side effects of what?", asked Gary. "Did something happen?"

Leaf sighed, and opened up her X-Transceiver to show the article she had read earlier, and projected it like it was a hologram, similar to a Holo Caster.

As the group read the title, their expressions became that of shock and horror. They couldn't believe what they were reading.

Ash's jaw dropped, as he would never expect this in a million years. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around to see Misty dragging him away from the others.

"Ash, I'm seriously worried. Do you think he could have planned this?", exclaimed Misty, who was grabbing him on the shoulders.

Ash, who didn't seem to get what she was saying, looked confused. "What do you mean?", he asked.

"Giovanni! He must have planned this! He makes the world think that you're dead, then he's able to get Articuno as a result, without you to stop him!", whispered Misty, trying not to draw the attention of the others.

Ash's face showed sudden realization, and he too looked extremely worried. "If that's the case, then this is really bad.", he exclaimed, matching Misty's grim expression.

As Ash and Misty walked back towards the others, they noticed Leaf wasn't with them, and walking back towards the Game Corner.

Ash ran up to Leaf, and Gary soon followed suit, catching up to her before she entered back into the Game Corner.

"Leaf, where are you going? Why are you leaving now?", asked Gary. Leaf turned around and noticed her old friends pleading with her to stay, but she knew what she had to do.

"I need to recover my team, they're still in there. I got you all out of there safely, and now I have to get my team and complete the mission I was assigned. Got it?", exclaimed Leaf, immediately regaining a serious demeanor.

"Fine. We'll go with you, then.", said Ash almost instantly after Leaf gave her reasoning, and the G-Men commander faltered. She knew Ash was always willing to help somebody out, but to willingly go back into a place they had just escaped?

"I'll go too, Leaf.", said Gary as he turned around to face the others, who were going over to find out what was going on.

"Please, come to your senses. I don't want you to get hurt or get recaptured by the Rockets. That's why I'm going in alone, I've been trained for this.", explained Leaf, but the others wouldn't budge.

"You helped us out, it's time we returned the favor.", said May, and the others looked like they had the same idea.

Leaf was awed by this display of comradery by Ash and his friends, who were willing to risk their lives just to save somebody else.

Leaf sighed reluctantly and gave a thumbs up. "Fine. Let's go.", she exclaimed as she walked back into the Game Corner, making sure nobody else was watching, and walked into the doorway, followed by the others.

The group had found more Rocket Grunts to beat up and take their uniforms so that they could be in disguise, and they were seemingly on patrol, but they were actually scouring the halls for Leaf's team.

After turning another corner, the group found themselves looking straight at Domino and Archer, who were leading Leaf's team, all tied up, through the hallways of the base.

"Let's go!", whispered Ash as he ran towards them, but he was stopped by Leaf, who grabbed him on the back.

"Hold it right there. We have to go in slowly before we do this. Okay?", commanded Leaf, and Ash reluctantly nodded.

The group slowly followed Archer and Domino through the base once more, just like how Domino had dragged the group (minus Leaf, of course) to meet with Archer only a few hours earlier.

Suddenly, Archer opened up a locked door with a key card, revealing a long flight of stairs. The group, pretending that they were reinforcement Grunts, followed the Executives up those stairs, which after a while gave way to a long, straight passageway.

"How long is this going to take?", asked Trip worriedly. He was keeping his camera in his pocket, but he hoped it wouldn't fall out to attract attention.

"As long as it needs too. You don't seem to be in any rush, don't you?", said Leaf.

"Okay, fine. Let's do this.", muttered the Unovan trainer as they continued to walk on the passageway, which soon led to a square-shaped room with a large window in the back, which gave a great view of the Kanto Bay.

Leaf realized that this room was on the cliffs of Celadon City, and she was surprised as to how far the Rocket Base stretched underground, as the hidden entrance in the Game Corner was in the middle of the city.

The Grunts set down the gagged G-Men agents while Archer began another monologue. "You know, this is usually where we dump the bodies after the execution process, but with you League spies we figured throwing you out now would be even worse!", laughed Archer manically.

Domino opened the window, and a Grunt grabbed one agent by the neck. The agent tried to make the Grunt let him go, but he was gagged and helpless.

The Grunt was about to throw the agent out of the window, but Leaf reacted quickly, running up and slamming the Grunt in the back, almost sending him out the window.

Archer and Domino responded almost immediately, Archer getting ready to fight while Domino brought out her Black Tulip staff.

"Just what do you think you're doing?", shouted Domino as she charged the disguised Leaf with her staff. Leaf managed to dodge the initial attack and punched the Rocket Elite in the stomach, sending her into the side wall.

"Hmph. You just don't know when to give up, don't you?", taunted Archer as he came closer to Ash and the others, who had started to spread out along the room to take on the Grunts who were stationed there.

"Maybe… or maybe not.", said Ash as he gripped a Pokeball. This was it, and he was going all out.

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Shamouti Island. Early Morning.**_

"So, you were the 1998 Festival Maiden?", asked Cynthia.

Immediately after Drake revealed who the Chosen One could have been, Lance, Steven, and Diantha were all in shock, but they kind of understood why. Each one of them had seen Ash excel as a trainer and as a person, helping out anyone in need.

She, along with Lance, Steven, Diantha, and the Orange Crew were staying in the village after helping clean up the situation with the Legendary Birds that morning. Now, they were staying in one of the village's houses, talking to a teenager that looked around sixteen.

"Yeah. I did it for a while, before they gave the position to another girl. My name's Melody, in case I didn't tell you earlier. Nice to meet you.", said Melody.

Melody was trying her best to act normal, but that was a challenge when three regional Champions and the entirety of the Orange Crew was in her house, demanding to know what had happened back in 1998.

"We're sorry for barging in, really, but we really need some answers as to what happened four years ago.", said Lance, but Melody shrugged it off.

"It's honestly no problem. Anyways, it started like any normal Legend Festival should, with fireworks and chanting and explaining how the legend worked, until Ash decided to go to Fire Island immediately after the dinner, instead of going in the morning… ", explained Melody, as she continued to retell the events four years prior.

As the former Festival Maiden was explaining how Ash had managed to stop the three Legendary Birds from rampaging along with Lugia, and the help of Melody, Misty, and Tracey, the Champions and Gym Leaders in the room were surprised. They didn't expect an twelve-year-old boy to be capable of saving the world, but from their experience they knew that Ash had backed up his title as the world's Chosen One.

Once Melody had finished telling her story, Diantha was the first to speak up. "Well, it does make sense. After the Kalos Crisis, I was asking Ash about what had happened at Prism Tower, and he said Lysandre believed he was one of the 'chosen ones' built to lead his new world.", exclaimed the Kalos Champion.

"It also explains how he was managed to stop Team Galactic in Sinnoh. He, along with Dawn Berlitz and Brock Harrison managed to form a bond with our own Lake Guardians, which helped us defeat Cyrus.", said Cynthia.

"Well, he did help me stop a Rocket front in Johto a few years back, and then he helped my undercover mission to stop Aqua and Magma. Heck, I even saw a Kyogre willingly let him onto its back!", exclaimed Lance.

Melody stared in awe as these powerful world leaders exchanged stories about Ash that she never knew about. Since the Orange Islands in general were pretty isolated from the rest of the world, they never got frequently updated on what was going on in other regions, usually settling on a couple news reports a month from travelers.

Cynthia turned towards Melody. "Again, thanks for telling us about this. It will be a big help for us.", she exclaimed.

Melody smiled. "It's really no big deal. I would do it anytime. That was one of the greatest days of my life.", she said.

"And about him dying… I don't buy it. Ash couldn't be killed that easily. Just take that into effect.", exclaimed Melody, sending confusion along the Champions' faces.

"If you say so.", exclaimed Steven as he stood up, along with the other Champions and the Orange Crew, and began to walk towards the door, Melody following suit, until she came across her sister Carol and her friend Maren in the living room as the Champions walked out of the house.

Carol had a suspicious expression on her face, staring at the door and then back to her sister, while Maren looked plain confused.

"Melody? What's going on?", asked Carol suspiciously. Melody sighed and slumped down on the couch. She knew Carol was never going to believe her, but she had to give it a shot.

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Coast of Kanto Bay. Early Morning.**_

Ash charged at the Rocket Executive at full speed and completely caught Archer off guard. The executive thought he was going to attack using his fists, but Ash sidestepped and sent out his Charizard instead, to the surprise of Archer.

"Charizard, use Flamethrower!", commanded Ash, as the Flame Pokemon shot a stream of fire at the unsuspecting Executive and his Grunts.

Meanwhile, Leaf had gone towards Domino and was having a duel in hand-to-hand combat, and it looked like Leaf had the upper hand, until Domino shocked her with her electric tulip staff.

Leaf, shakily stood up, still weary from the electric shock, and got ready to attack the Rocket Elite once more.

"Take this!", grunted Leaf as she delivered a spin kick right into Domino's chest, sending her across the room and into some of her Grunts, all crashing onto the floor.

"Leaf! Are you all right?", asked Gary, who had run up to her after punching a charging Rocket Grunt in the stomach. By this time, alarm bells had started to ring all over the base, and since it was the morning shift, a lot more Grunts were bound to be on patrol and investigate what was going on.

"I'm okay… just some electric shocks… ", muttered Leaf as she continued to fight regardless of her pain.

Meanwhile, the others had either sent out their Pokemon to attack the Grunts or were fighting with their fists, and it seemed to be working.

Iris was jumping all across the room, giving unsuspecting grunts a swift kick in the shin whenever she could, while Cilan was using his Pansage to send Bullet Seeds, ricocheting around the small room.

Serena commanded her Braixen to use Flamethrower all across the room, while Clemont was using his exploding inventions to catch Grunts off guard while the others finished them off.

Trip used his camera's flash function to blind the Rockets, and then commanded his Serperior to wrap them up and throw them across the room.

Ritchie used his Butterfree to blow the Grunts into opposite walls, while Drew did the same with his Roserade, as flowers blew around the room, creating a performance worthy of the Grand Festival while beating up Rockets at the same time.

Brock was using his fists instead of his Pokemon, and once he got a good opening, managed to deliver a strong punch into a unsuspecting Grunt's gut.

May, Dawn, Zoey, and Kenny put their Contest strategies, as they used their Pokemon's moves wisely to startle Grunts and keep them away.

Misty moved with grace along with her Gyarados, completely wiping the Rockets with dodges and Hydro Pumps galore.

Paul went charging towards the Rockets, and was doing well for a teenager going up against a bunch of trained lackeys, managing to knock down a few Grunts at a time, while Barry just ran around and tripped Grunts up to let the others finish them off.

Max, however, attempted to hide in the corner for a while, as he didn't really know how to fight, but May ran over to protect her little brother while fending off more Rockets.

Suddenly, there was silence around the room,and the group stopped. When the smoke cleared, most of the Rockets were out cold thanks to the group's efforts, with only Archer, Domino, and a few Grunts remaining, that is, until they collapsed from exhaustion onto the floor.

The gang soon returned their Pokemon and began to relax and catch their breath, thinking that it was over for now.

Ash stopped for a moment to catch his breath, and to take it all in. "Is it… over? Did we… do it?", he huffed as he was bent over.

Misty went over and put her arm on his shoulder, leaning on him. "Yeah… I think so… that was something for sure."

Leaf went right to work untying her team, and removing their gags and restraints, and her squadron all got up okay.

"Thank you, Commander Greene. If you didn't help us out there, we would have been dead for sure.", exclaimed one of her squadmates.

"It was nothing. Just what a true G-Men agent would do.", commented Leaf, as she was looking in her pockets for the mobile detonator, but came up empty.

"Okay guys, this isn't funny. Where's my mobile detonator?", asked Leaf, who was on the verge of panicking.

Suddenly, a voice from the other side of the room rang into the group's ears. "Looking for this?", cackled a bruised, burnt, but very much alive Archer, who was holding Leaf's detonator, which controlled all of the explosives Leaf had set inside the base.

"I don't know how you did this, but either way, you're going down! Go, Sceptile!", said Ash, but he was unable to open Sceptile's Pokeball and send him out to battle. "What's going on now?"

Another set of Grunts began to enter the room, and Archer began to cackle like a madman. "HAHAHAHA! You're powerless to stop us! I've just set up a radio interceptor that prevents your Pokeballs from releasing their Pokemon!"

"And since you seem to always get out of our clutches, I'll set this off and we'll all be gone! I'll be the greatest martyr Team Rocket has ever seen!", he laughed as he held the detonator in his hand, ready to blow.

"I had my doubts, but this guy's completely insane. No doubt about it.", whispered Kenny to Zoey, but Archer unfortunately heard that snippet of their conversation.

"All right. You asked for it!", yelled Archer, as he pressed the detonate button.

 **BOOM!**

Explosions soon began to rock the entirety of the Rocket Base and the ceilings and walls soon began to collapse Pieces of the base began to fall onto the floor, making the others duck for cover.

Ash opened the door for a quick peek at the hallway outside despite the collapsing ceiling and destroyed walls, and he could see that the explosions were very far away, but getting rapidly closer to the room. Luckily, they had a few seconds left due to how far away this room was from the rest of the base.

Ash raced down to the other side of the room, where he had placed his backpack. He knew what he had to do, regardless of the sacrifices he could be making. He zipped open his backpack as fast as he could and rummaged through it until finding what he wanted.

He put Sir Aaron's gloves on his hands and turned around, only to see Archer slam the door and put his back to it, while laughing madly.

"There is no way you can survive this, Ketchum! It's over!", cackled Archer, while Ash stood there, a determined look on his face. He only had a few more seconds until the explosions hit this room, so he turned around to address the group.

"Go! Use any Flying Pokemon you've got and get out of here!", yelled Ash to his friends, along with the G-Men agents. The agents instantly obeyed, calling out their licensed Pidgeots and Fearows and flying out of the building.

Ash's friends, however, waited inside the room, reluctant to leave him behind. Ash knew this would be hard for them, but he needed them to escape.

Ash yelled at them one more time. "Get out! There isn't that much time!", he shouted as he could start to hear the explosions get even more closer.

This brought the group to their senses, and they immediately began to send out their Flying-type Pokemon, and got out of the building on them. Drew was on his Flygon, Trip was on his Tranquil, Paul went onto his Honchkrow, and people who didn't own any Flying Pokemon went onto other people's Pokemon.

Brock, who was riding on Drew's Flygon along with Drew, May, and Max, suddenly noticed Ash start to put his hands out in front of him, and then his eyes shot open once he realized what Ash was wearing on his hands.

From back inside the room, Ash heard Brock's voice come in through the window. "Ash! Don't do it! You could get yourself killed if it doesn't work!", yelled Brock, but Ash ignored it and began to concentrate.

Misty looked on from Iris's Dragonite and saw what Ash was doing, but she didn't know what was going on. Either way, she was panicked and didn't want to lose him, so she yelled into the room.

"Ash, whatever you're doing, stop it! Please, get out!", shouted Misty, and Ash felt the urge to jump out and go on his Charizard, but he knew he couldn't thanks to Archer's Pokeball frequency transmitter.

Ash began to concentrate as hard as he could, closed his eyes, and braced himself for the explosions coming his way. He needed to do this, to stop Archer and whatever Team Rocket was doing in this base, and to stop them from going after him and his friends.

 **BOOOM!**

The flurry of explosions reached the room, and Ash opened his eyes, his whole body now glowing blue. He looked at his hands, which were now glowing bright blue, and thrust them towards the explosions.

A protective Aura barrier formed around the explosions, completely controllable by Ash, but he was weakening. He knew he couldn't hold on to this much power for very long, and he had to release it before he lost control.

"Sorry, Mist.", mumbled Ash as he thrust his hands down, pointing towards the floor. This subsequently caused the Aura barrier Ash had made containing the power of the detonated bombs to fall towards the floor, and the Aura barrier burst as a result.

 **KA-BOOM!**

The biggest explosion yet rocked the cliffs of Celadon City, sending out ginormous shock waves that pushed the others, who had gone far away from the site, another twenty feet in the air.

The last thing Ash felt was hearing and feeling the full force of the detonated bombs burn on his skin, and feeling himself being thrown out of the window like he was shot out of a cannon. He looked up to see the bright blue sky above him, heard a few people yelling his name, and he fell in contentment before everything went black.

* * *

 **Here it is! We've reached the end of the two-part mini arc, but what happens from here? You'll just have to read more to find out! Feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	11. X - The Start of Something New

**I'm back, everyone! I was so excited when I finished this chapter, because I finally came to a realization. Over 10,000 words in a single chapter! When I first started this I couldn't believe I would write over 5000 words, but here I am, four months later, achieving what was thought as impossible.**

 **Unfortunately, nobody bothered to review this story after the release of the last chapter, so there will not be any review responses today. Now, on with the story!**

* * *

 ** _The Eighteen_**

 _Chapter 11_

 _The Start of Something New_

* * *

 _ **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Morning.**_

Ash's eyes shot open, and he got up off the floor immediately. He turned to scan his surroundings, but all he could see was darkness all around him.

Ash began to walk, not knowing where he was going at all, as he was just trying to find a way out of this dark place.

"Okay… this is getting really creepy… ", mumbled Ash as he continued to walk around, only to see darkness all around him and nothing in the distance.

After what seemed like a few hours of just walking in plain darkness, a white outline of a door became visible in front of him.

Ash, relieved that he had might have found a way out, rushed up to the door, and put his hand on the doorknob, and gripped it tightly.

"Well… here goes nothing!", exclaimed Ash as he thrust open the door, and the unknown room revealed itself to be a long hallway that seemed narrower.

Ash slumped through the doorway and into the hallway, still seeing darkness all around him. "Whoever's doing this, it's not funny! Get me out of this place!", shouted Ash as he sat down on what seemed like a floor.

However, the door at the end still beckoned to the raven-haired teenager, and so Ash got up and continued to walk toward the end of the hallway, which seemed to go on forever.

Having grown tired of waiting, Ash began to run to the door, only to see it seemingly go even farther away from him.

Ash, seeing this, began to run towards the drifting door like never before. The only other time he felt this fast was running from all those Spearow along with Pikachu all the way back on Route 1 in April 1997, the first day of his journey.

He managed to get the chance to look down at his body while he was running, and he was shocked by what he saw. His body was surrounded by a blue glow, and he seemed to be moving much faster than he had ever done.

While that fact was still being processed in Ash's brain, another series of realizations made the teenager even more surprised about himself. If his Aura flared up subconsciously, then that would put a whole lot of issues to rest, like how he once jumped over 50 feet into the air from the ground to Team Rocket's balloon back in Hoenn.

Ash continued to sprint towards the door, determined to reach it and find out what was inside, and as he ran the final yards, all he could think about was getting to that door.

Suddenly, the door seemed to stop a few yards in front of Ash, but the boy was still sprinting towards it, and so he had no time to stop himself short of the door.

Ash tried to slow down as best as he could, but to no avail. Once he knew he had no chance of stopping, he just put out his hands and hoped that they would break his sprint.

Unfortunately, his left hand instantly grabbed the doorknob, and Ash's full weight slammed into the door, swinging him inside the room and falling onto the floor at top speed.

Ash laid on the floor for a couple of seconds, and then shot straight up onto his feet. He then looked around to see what was inside the room, and then his jaw absolutely dropped to the floor when he saw what, or who, was in front of him.

"What took you so long?", asked Sir Aaron.

 _ **December 7, 2002. Coast of Kanto Bay. Morning.**_

"No! Ash!", cried Misty as the the raven-haired teenager fell down into the depths of the Kanto bay below, and there wasn't anything she could do to save him.

Suddenly, Leaf grabbed one of her Pokeballs and released a Musharna, which fell into the air, grabbed Ash, and Teleported itself along with Ash onto the top of the cliffs.

"Now! Over there!", shouted Leaf, as she flew away on her Noctowl towards where Ash was, laid down on the grass, unconscious.

The rest of the group landed alongside the cliffs, returned their Pokemon, and rushed toward their fallen friend.

"Is he okay?", asked Brock, being the first to reach the cliffs. He knew a lot about how to treat Pokemon thanks to his role as a Pokemon doctor, and he hoped the same principles he learned could apply to humans as well.

Brock tried to feel for a pulse, but only found a faint heartbeat. His face was grim as he turned to face the others, who were crowding around in support of Ash.

"There's only a faint pulse. He needs help, now!", exclaimed Brock, and the others shared an equally grim expression a they stared at the unconscious Ash.

Misty then broke the unbearable silence and ran up to Ash, and shook him, trying to get a response from him. "Ash! Ash! Please tell me you're okay!", she cried.

The others just continued to stand on the top of the cliff, not knowing what to say besides what had already been said, while the fires from the destroyed Rocket Base continued to burn along the cliff face.

"Is there anything we can do?", asked Serena, tears flowing down her face, which was a similar reaction for everyone else standing at the scene and looking at their friend's unconscious body.

"He needs to get to a Pokemon Center, there's a wing for human injuries. There's one in the center of Celadon. Let's move!", exclaimed Leaf as she started to run towards the center of the city, and the others followed suit.

"Commander! What should we do?", asked one of Leaf's agents, who were still standing near the edge of the cliffs, waiting for further instructions.

"Agents, stay back and scan the perimeter of the base for any escaping Rockets. The police will be here soon, so you should help with that.", explained Leaf, and her team nodded and ran off towards the burning Rocket Base.

"What are you waiting for?", said Leaf as she started to run down into the streets of Celadon, followed by the others, who were carrying Ash on their backs.

They ran through the streets, not knowing where to go, except for Brock and Misty providing some sense of direction, even though they hadn't been in the city for around five years.

Their disguises were nothing much, just some hoods and sunglasses being worn on their faces, but it was enough to snoop through the big city, past the unsuspecting residents and their skeptical looks.

While they were walking through the city, desperately trying to find the hospital, Dawn went up to Brock and started to talk to him.

"Brock… what Ash did there at the base… don't you think that looked familiar?", asked Dawn curiously, catching Brock's attention.

Brock thought to himself for a moment, and then came up with an answer. "Well, it did seem familiar to what Riley did back on Iron Island to stop Team Galactic from blowing up those ruins."

Dawn nodded her head. "Yeah, that's why it felt so familiar. I remember Riley also tried to contain the bombs with Aura… that's probably why Ash did the same because he saw it before… "

"But, we can't reflect on that now. We have to save our friend, and that's what we should be focused on.", exclaimed Brock as he continued to walk along with the others, and Dawn followed suit into the city streets.

"There it is! That's the Pokemon Center!", exclaimed Barry as he raced onto the courtyard in front of the massive building. However, instead of walking straight through the front door, Leaf continued to walk around the giant building and towards the back of the Pokemon Center.

"Wait up!", shouted Clemont as he and the others ran towards Leaf, making sure to keep their disguises on as they went towards the back door of the building.

"Hold it. Are you sure you know where you're going?", asked Paul skeptically as he caught up to Leaf, who had taken out some tool.

Leaf turned to face Paul. "I'm a G-Men agent. It's my job to know these things.", she exclaimed as she bent down and started to pick the lock on the back door.

The group waited around Leaf as she broke open the lock and opened the door, and the gang started to walk inside the Pokemon Center.

"Man, how come the Pokemon Centers in Kanto are so big?", asked Trip. "I never thought something so cool would come from the boonies.", he muttered as Gary stared at him.

"Whaddya mean, _boonies_?", asked Gary suspiciously towards Trip, and the Unovan trainer tried to back away from Gary's menacing stare.

"Be quiet! This isn't the time to fight!", hissed Leaf, which immediately shut up the two quarreling trainers, and the gang continued to walk through the building, trying to find the human treatment wing of the Center.

"How are we gonna find our way in this place?", asked Kenny while the group was still struggling to navigate the Pokemon Center and find the place they needed to go to inside the building.

"There they are! Get them!", shouted a voice, and the gang could hear footsteps racing from the other side of the hallway.

"We really should have thought this through… ", muttered Drew as he saw himself and the others cornered while a figure approached from the other side.

Officer Jenny stepped into the main corridor, only to see a bunch of what looked like teenagers carrying an unconscious boy on their back on the other side.

"All right, what's going on here?", she asked.

 _ **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Morning.**_

Ash was absolutely speechless. Standing right in front of him was the legendary Aura Guardian Sir Aaron, complete with his outfit and staff. Once he finally managed to regain his composure, all he could spill out of his mouth was a few stutters.

"W-What the… h-how… ", stuttered Ash, still extremely confused as to why a guy who had died almost five hundred years ago was standing in front of him, very much alive.

"I would have thought you would have come here much earlier, but better late than never, am I right?", exclaimed the Aura Guardian.

"B-But… how can you be here? I thought you were dead!", said Ash, causing Sir Aaron to shake his head and stare at the boy.

"Dead? That's not a nice way to talk to your great-times one-hundred-grandfather, young man!", said the Aura Guardian, causing Ash to go into another state of shock, right after the first one had worn off.

"G-Great-times-one-hundred grandfather… ?", Ash mumbled, still completely speechless, while Sir Aaron started to walk towards him.

"Loosen up, kid. We've got a lot to go over.", exclaimed Sir Aaron as he walked towards the shocked Ash and motioned him over to the other side of the room.

"So let me get this straight. I got knocked out from using too much Aura, and so I got sent here, met you, and as it turns out, I'm your direct descendant? This is all too much to take in.", exclaimed Ash as he put his head in his hands.

"It's fine, honestly. I was pretty shocked when I first came here as well.", said Aaron as he walked back in front of the teenager.

"Well, what even is _here_ , anyway?", asked Ash. "You never bothered to tell me earlier, and I was just curious."

"Well, just think of this as inside of your mind, and so when you were knocked out your consciousness got transported here. And as for me, I still am dead, but this is only a fraction of my spirit.", exclaimed Aaron, trying to fill out all the missing details that Ash was looking for.

"I guess that makes sense. But why did I go here when I was knocked out?", exclaimed Ash, still looking for answers.

"Because I wanted to talk to you, that's why.", exclaimed Aaron. "You see, ever since the incident at the Tree of Beginning a while back, a portion of my trapped soul exited the crystals of the tree and went inside your mind."

"Uh, isn't that an invasion of privacy?", asked Ash, who was worried about what his ancestor would say next.

"Not really. I hadn't appeared to you in three years, it was you that came to me in here. An old tradition of the Aura Guardians was to choose an apprentice through a person's mindscape.", exclaimed Sir Aaron.

"Interesting… but what does this have to do with me?", said Ash, who was still confused about this whole encounter, not having all the answers he felt he needed.

"Well, it seems that the time has come, Ash. You have the power of Aura inside of you, but you don't know how to control it yet.", exclaimed the Aura Guardian as he opened his knapsack and brought out an old, worn-down book.

"Well, how do I control that power?", asked Ash out of curiosity. He was definitely intrigued by this possibility, but he wanted to know what risks he would have to take in order to achieve that power.

"Well, normally it would take years of training to do it, but from what I've seen, you don't have that kind of time. So, I'll have to try something different.", exclaimed Aaron as he opened the book he was holding.

"This book contains all my life's work on Aura and its properties. I believe it's time to pass on my knowledge to somebody else, and it'll have a better chance of working because our Auras are the same,", said the Aura Guardian as he put his hands in front of him and started to concentrate.

"So, what knowledge will you be transferring to me?", asked Ash, while Sir Aaron's hands started to glow azure blue.

"I'll be giving you the mental information on how to use the many aspects Aura, but you will have to learn how to master them yourself. Plus, you'll get some fancy new Aura Guardian clothes.", smirked the Aura Guardian, his whole body now glowing an azure blue color.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that Lucario says hi. He was the one that originally recommended you for this.", exclaimed Aaron, leaving a smile on Ash's face. He was glad that Lucario still remembered him, and even mentioned him and his deeds to the legendary Sir Aaron.

Ash moved to respond to his ancestor, but the Aura Guardian cut him off with a wave of his arm. "Just stand still, okay?", he exclaimed as he turned towards Ash and thrust his glowing arms in front of him, which generated a gigantic Aura Sphere that glowed in contrast to the darkness of the room they were in.

As Ash stood in front of Aaron, he watched in awe as the legendary Aura Guardian summoned all of his spirit into this one Aura Sphere, and paused for a moment, its power ready to be unleashed.

"Good luck, Ash. You're going to need it.", exclaimed the Aura Guardian as he threw his arms towards his descendant, releasing the gigantic Aura Sphere onto an unsuspecting Ash.

Ash braced for impact, but he never expected something like this. A blinding azure light washed over Ash's entire body, making him see nothing but bright blue through his eyes.

Ash screamed, as the unrelenting pain was too much to take. The blue light seeped into Ash's body, and filled the boy with the full potential of the power of Aura.

Sir Aaron watched on as his descendant took part in this agonizing process, but he knew Ash would manage to pull through. Lucario told him that the boy had supreme potential, and he was really showing it now while showing extreme determination during this transfer of knowledge.

Ash had to use all of his strength and will to bear through the insurmountable pain, and at the same time he felt himself slipping away, into another place, and another world.

 _ **December 7, 2002. Pallet Town. Late Morning.**_

It took a long while for the Champions to deal with the press and the aftermath of the incident on Shamouti Island, and so it was close to noon once they arrived back at Pallet Town, in front of a huge crowd outside Professor Oak's laboratory.

"Professor Oak! How will you be handling these recent string of events?", asked a reporter, followed by many more. Lance could tell the old Pokemon Expert couldn't handle the assault of the media, and so he ran up to the microphone in front of the Professor.

"Leave him alone! I'll answer your questions from now on. Got it?", exclaimed Lance as Professor Oak staggered off the podium, and followed by the other Champions inside the laboratory, while Steven followed Lance to answer the media's questions.

"Lance! How will you and the other Champions plan on stopping Giovanni! And what will you do to help repair your people?", asked one reporter belonging to the Kanto News Network.

Lance sighed to himself. It always felt like he and the other Champions were being targeted by the press more and more each day, and it was starting to get extremely annoying by this point in time.

"My, my. What exactly happened at Shamouti Island back there?", asked Professor Oak, who was scared about the incident, but intrigued at the same time due to its scientific possibilities.

"Giovanni had purposely targeted the three Legendary Birds, just like that Collector four years ago. But this time, there was no "Chosen One" to save them, along with Lugia as well.", said Cynthia.

We're lucky to have Lugia safe and not captured, and to have Moltres and Zapdos safe as well, but Articuno… Giovanni captured him.", exclaimed Cynthia to the people sitting around her, which included Professor Oak, Delia, and Wallace, who had just woken up.

"If this is like four years ago, then the weather would be affected, right?", asked an intrigued Wallace, who had just joined in the conversation.

"Unfortunately, yes. Due to Articuno's capture, temperatures have begun to rise at an alarming rate, more than in the last five years combined.", exclaimed Professor Oak.

Cynthia nodded grimly, then spoke again. "Delia, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this must be revealed. It's about… Ash."

"I-I'm afraid Giovanni might have planned this from the start, by targeting Ash and his friends. I'm an expert in mythology, and I realized something about the Shamouti Prophecy, that Giovanni chose to exploit.", explained Cynthia, sending shivers down the others' spines.

"Delia, did Ash tell you everything about what happened four years ago on Shamouti Island? Everything?", asked Cynthia. Delia paused for a moment, then began to speak.

"Well, he talked all about how there was this huge adventure, and that he was destined to save the world. He even he said he rode on a Lugia… , but he was only twelve. I didn't believe what he said, because he was probably exaggerating most of the details.", exclaimed Delia.

"I see.", said Cynthia, her head down. "I'm afraid what Ash said was all real. He was the Chosen One, destined to save the world whenever it needed saving.", she exclaimed, causing Delia and the Professor to gasp in shock.

"So… you're saying that everything was real? Everything my son rambled on and on about… was real?", asked Delia, tears in her eyes.

"Yes… and that's exactly why Giovanni wanted to kill him. So the world's "Chosen One" could not stop his plans for world domination.", exclaimed Cynthia grimly.

The others in the room stared at the floor in silence, unable to fully process what the Sinnoh Champion had just revealed to them, until the sounds of footsteps came from upstairs.

A half-dressed Alder came tumbling down the stairs, grabbed a slice of bread, and collapsed onto the couch, feet out onto the couch as well, to the surprise of the others sitting in the laboratory's living room.

"So, what'd I miss?", exclaimed Alder, while laughing to himself as the others stared at his utter lack of presenting himself.

 _ **December 7, 2002. Celadon City. Late Morning.**_

"I said, what is going on here!", shouted Celadon's own Officer Jenny. The gang were absolutely terrified that they had been caught, right when they needed help for Ash at the moment.

Brock, however, was in his usual infatuated state at the moment, and it took all of Misty and Max's will to restrain him from coming up to Jenny.

Jenny then noticed the unconscious boy that these kids were carrying, and immediately had a change of heart. "I don't know who you are, or what your motives are, but I won't let down a person that needs help. Come on, I'll take you to the treatment center.", exclaimed Jenny as she motioned the gang to follow her.

"That was an extremely close call, wasn't it?", asked Iris as the gang followed Officer Jenny along the halls of the Center.

"I don't think we're safe just yet. I bet you that after Ash gets treated for, we'll be treated for a bunch of questioning, which is bad. According to the media, I've been off the grid for five years, and you all are supposed to be dead.", exclaimed Leaf, sending shivers down the rest of the gang's spines.

"If we are questioned, what do we do to keep our identities safe?", asked Zoey out of curiosity, and Leaf turned to face her and spoke.

"Don't worry about that just yet. We have a friend to save now.", said Leaf, as the group continued to follow Officer Jenny, until the policewoman stopped in front of a door, which she then opened.

"Nurse Joy! There's been an emergency!", exclaimed Officer Jenny as she rushed into the hallway, where a Nurse Joy was standing, out of breath, but determined to do her job.

"I've left the Pokemon Treatment wing to my trainees, so I'm fully open here. What's the emergency?", asked Nurse Joy. "And Jenny, I don't care who these people are. I just want to help them out here."

Nurse Joy grabbed a spare gurney and wheeled it over to the others who then put Ash onto it, making sure to keep his sunglasses and hood on his face as Joy wheeled him towards an empty room, while the others and Officer Jenny followed suit.

"Okay. I've run some procedures, and your friend appears to be in a coma. I'm afraid I won't know when, or if, he'll wake up at all.", explained Nurse Joy, sending a grim mood to the rest of the group.

"Thank you so much, Nurse Joy. You did all you could.", exclaimed a disguised Misty, who was on the verge of bursting into tears.

"Okay, now that this is over with, it's time you reveal yourselves! Just who exactly are you all?", asked Officer Jenny suspiciously.

The group stared at each other worriedly. This was the moment that they would be found out, their identities revealed, and the whole media would be on their backs from this moment until the day they died.

Suddenly, Leaf stepped in front of the rest of the group, and held out some sort of badge. "Agent Greene of the G-Men. They're with me. Okay?", exclaimed Leaf, and Officer Jenny was clearly confused.

"The G-Men? This is no time for games, little girl. I have a job to do, and that is figuring out who you all truly are!", shouted Jenny as she started to corner the teens into the back wall.

"Hello, Lance? Yes, it's Leaf. Can you please tell this _incompetent_ officer that I'm the real deal? It seems that she can't see straight.", exclaimed Leaf into her X-Transceiver, and another voice soon came through the speakers of Leaf's device.

"Officer Jenny of Celadon, I assure you that Ms. Greene actually _is_ a G-Men agent, and a good one at that.", came Lance's voice out of Leaf's X-Transceiver, causing Jenny to be filled with fear.

"Y-Yes, sir, Lance! I won't disrespect you or your agents again.", muttered Jenny as she slumped down the hallway, away from Leaf and the others.

Leaf sighed and put her head down. "I hate it when I have to call Lance for help. Can't people just see that I'm a perfectly capable G-Men agent by themselves?", she muttered to herself.

"Leaf, I'm sure you'll be fine. Someday you'll prove to everybody out there that you're just as capable as any other G-Men agent, I just know it.", exclaimed Gary enthusiastically.

Leaf smiled at her old friend, then turned back to Ash's unconscious body. "Thanks, Gary, but there just seems to be too much riding on my shoulders, including Ash's life. I've spent the last five years training so hard that I could command a mission, yet I still can't pull it together.", she mumbled while staring at Ash's body.

"Leaf Greene, get yourself together! I can't just stand here and watch you mope around while somebody else's life is in danger! We have to stand up, as a team, and as friends!", exclaimed Gary, trying to knock some sense into his old friend.

All of a sudden, a blue glow started to surround Ash's unconscious body, becoming a brighter azure blue by the second. The group, including Leaf, turned to look at their old friend, and the blue glow all around him.

"Brock? W-What is that?", whispered Max, who was even more terrified than he was during this entire journey.

The rest of the group stared in awe as the Aura surrounding Ash began to get brighter and brighter, almost blinding to the group, who were covering their eyes from the light.

Then, the blinding light died down, leaving Ash still in the hospital bed, but with a complete wardrobe change. Dawn, Brock, May, and Max all gasped in shock, while the others continued to stand behind the bed, speechless.

Suddenly, Ash's eyes shot open, and he sat up almost immediately, smacking Brock in the head when he tried to sit up.

"Brock? What the… where am I?", exclaimed Ash as he looked around the room. It seemed to be some sort of hospital room, which he was confused about, but he became even more confused once he looked down at his body.

Gone were the jacket and pants he wore in Kalos, and they were replaced with a complete set of Aura Guardian garb, similar to what Riley wore back in Sinnoh, and he still had Sir Aaron's gloves on his hands as well.

Brock watched in awe as his friend looked around the room. His jaw then dropped even further once he saw Ash's eyes, which had changed color from brown to a blazing Aura blue.

Ash then felt his brain stir with activity, and he felt new ideas, new tactics, and things he had never seen or heard of before in real life now inside of him. He had a hunch that those were the ideas of Aura Sir Aaron had gave to him, and if that was true, he would be ever grateful to his ancestor.

"Ash! Thank Arceus you're okay!", yelled Misty as she ran up to him and hugged him for a good minute, then pulled away, tears in her eyes.

"Do you know how dangerous that was back there, Ash Ketchum? You could have died out there if we didn't save you!", exclaimed Misty, while Ash looked on, confused.

"But… I was doing it for you guys… I was trying to save you… ", mumbled Ash, but Misty wouldn't back down.

"But you could have died out there. I-We don't want to lose you. I really don't!", exclaimed Misty as more tears started to fall, while Ash sat there with a blank expression.

Drew, who was watching the scene unfold in front of him, turned to Brock and whispered in his ear. "Is this what you meant earlier? That he's so dense?"

Brock turned to face the Coordinator, and nodded. "Yeah. He can't take a hint, can he?", he exclaimed, and Drew shrugged comically.

"There's only one thing I can tell from here, and it's that Misty is madly in love with him.", whispered Drew, and Brock rolled his eyes.

"Well, if you were there from the beginning, it was obvious from the start.", said Brock, and Drew chuckled to himself.

Meanwhile, Serena stood on the other side of Ash's hospital bed, completely furious, and it took all of Clemont's strength and his Aipom Arm to hold the Pokemon Performer back from absolutely pummeling Misty.

"Misty… thanks… but how exactly did I end up here in the first place?", exclaimed Ash in confusion as to why he was in a hospital room.

"We'll tell you that, once you explain to us how in the world you suddenly changed clothes, Ashy-boy.", smirked Gary, and Ash grinned.

"Wait a minute. So after you got knocked unconscious, you traveled to another dimension, met Sir Aaron, and he sent you back here with knowledge on how to use Aura? That sure is a lot to take in.", exclaimed Brock.

"You're right, but it didn't feel so crazy in the moment… ", mumbled Ash, and Brock laughed and rolled his eyes.

"Ash, seeing as to what you've been through, I bet to you it didn't seem so crazy either.", exclaimed Brock, who was chuckling, along with the all of the others.

"You've got a point there, Brock. Now you all have to spill. How did I get here?", asked Ash, and the others turned to answer.

"Okay, let me try to summarize. So I got knocked out of the Rocket Base due to me losing control of my Aura barrier, and I got rescued and brought to the Pokemon Center's human treatment wing. Is that right?", asked Ash, and the others nodded.

"Oh yeah… about the clothes. Aaron did say I would be getting a wardrobe change once I got back to the real world.", explained Ash while chuckling to himself.

"I think it suits you, Ash. Almost three years in the making.", said Brock, while May, Max, and Ash rolled their eyes.

"Whatever. Wait, what are you all waiting for? Let's get out of here!", exclaimed Ash as he got up from the hospital bed, breaking all of the tubes and wires that were attached to him.

"You know what, I'll just leave a note.", mumbled Leaf as she took out a piece of paper and began to write on it.

 _Patient is fully recovered and has left the Center. Thank you for your cooperation._

 _-Agent Greene, Indigo-G-Men._

As the gang began to walk out of the hospital room and back into the halls of the Pokemon Center, Dawn went up to Ash, who looked more different than he had ever been in the last six years.

"Ash… you might want to look at yourself for a moment.", exclaimed Dawn as she brought out a portable mirror she always carried with her, and opened it up in front of Ash, who then looked shocked at his own reflection.

"What happened to my eyes?", asked Ash out loud, extremely confused, and Brock turned to face him.

"What do you think, Ash? They're Aura blue, isn't that right?", exclaimed Brock, and Ash had a sudden realization. Sir Aaron really did make it work. He had the knowledge, the clothes, and the eyes, but all he had to do was to master it all in person.

The gang soon walked out of the Pokemon Center and back onto the city streets, despite having the occasional suspicious looks from others on the sidewalks, but anyone who went up to them was shot down by Leaf.

As Ash and the others were walking through the city streets, Ash decided to try using his Aura for the first real time. As soon as he thought about what to do, he heard some sort of procedure inside of his head, telling him exactly to do.

Ash listened to the information he somehow had in his head, concentrated on the process, and focused on his Aura, and when he looked down he saw that he had successfully made an Aura Sphere in no time. It was at this moment that Ash had another realization, that Aaron actually did it.

The legendary Aura Guardian had actually transferred all he knew and had seen to Ash in order to let him become an Aura Guardian and make use of the dormant power inside of him.

Ash let his instincts take over and closed his eyes, and was shocked on what he saw. He could see everything in the near distance, all outlined with azure blue. Ash swung his head around, and he saw that his friends and his Pokemon had a sharper and brighter blue outline, complete with their own different Auras.

Ash opened his eyes with a start, and ran towards his friends, who were by now near the city borders. "You guys! You have to listen to this!", exclaimed Ash as he stopped where the others were walking.

"Sir Aaron actually did it! It's so much easier to use Aura now, I can hardly believe it!", said Ash enthusiastically, while the others just stared at him.

"Seriously? I won't believe it until I see it.", exclaimed Max, pulling his glasses closer to his eyes, and the others started to watch intensely as well.

In a matter of seconds, with some focus, Ash was able to produce a normal-sized Aura Sphere that made the others look on in awe at the sight.

"All right, I believe you, Ash.", exclaimed Max, who then high-fived his old friend, while the others held similar expressions of awe on their faces, except for Paul, who had walked up to Ash.

"I don't want to spoil the fun, but there are people nearby, and we're reaching the start of Route 8, so you might want to put on some disguise.", muttered Paul as he started to walk away, but Ash stopped him.

"Thanks a lot, Paul. I almost forgot about that.", exclaimed Ash as he looked around his Aura Guardian outfit for anything to put on, until he found that he was wearing a cloak with the hood down, so he took off his hat, put it in his backpack, and put the hood over his face.

"You know, I like it. Suits the whole 'mysterious Aura Guardian' vibe you've got there.", exclaimed Dawn as she and the others began to walk onto the short, but grassy, Route 8 that led from Celadon to Saffron City.

A short while later, Ash and the others were continuing to walk along Route 8 until they saw a group of people in the distance. The group stopped to see what was going on, only to see said people walk closer to them.

"What do you think they're doing?", asked Ritchie, who could only see their silhouettes from afar along with the rest of the group.

"I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see.", exclaimed Gary, reading a Pokeball, and the others soon followed suit, ready to battle if necessary.

As the silhouettes walked closer, the gang could see what they actually looked like, causing Ash, Brock, and especially Misty to gasp in shock.

Standing in front of them were three people who couldn't have been younger than fourteen. One was skinny with blue hair, another was short and with spiky red hair, and the last one was fat and had brown hair. As soon as these people were in sight, they performed a series of what looked like karate poses in front of the group.

"Kail!", shouted the blue-haired boy.

"Kim!", exclaimed the brown-haired boy.

"And Kai!", said the red-haired boy.

The three began to speak all at once. "Beware, for we are the Invincible Pokemon Brothers! Hand over your Pokemon at once!", they exclaimed, finishing off with more karate poses as the group just stared at them weirdly.

"Now, just who do you think you are?", asked Gary. "Don't you have better things to do than to take other people's Pokemon?"

"Yeah, and besides, since Gym Battles have been postponed, there's barely anyone on the routes! You're just wasting your time here.", exclaimed Dawn.

Kail walked up to Dawn smugly, and spoke in her face. "True, but the ones who are on the routes now are always the stronger trainers. So hand over your Pokemon, or else.", hissed Kail, and Dawn looked absolutely terrified at the moment.

"Get away from her!", yelled Paul as he ran up towards Kail, and punched him right in the face. Kail staggered back, clearly hurt, while Paul went back to help Dawn.

"Man, what was that for? What's your problem?", asked Kail, still covering parts of his face, while Paul stood in front of him, fists clenched.

"My problem is that you don't know when to shut up, that's what.", exclaimed Paul, who was grinding his teeth in anger.

Kail went behind his brothers, who then went up closer to the group. Kim and Kai went up close to Brock and Misty, and began to speak.

"You two… you look awfully familiar.", exclaimed Kim, while Kai continued their duologue. "Where have we seen you again?"

"Please, mister, I have no idea what you're talking about. Just leave us on our way and we'll be out of here.", exclaimed Brock, and Misty nodded, just trying to get this conversation over with as fast as possible.

After a minute or so of getting nowhere, Kim and Kai turned their attention to Ash, who still had his hood covering his face at the moment.

"So, who are you? Lost on the way to the Dungeons and Dragonite convention?", asked Kim mockingly, but Ash didn't seem fazed under his hood. "You know, Lavender Town is that way, along with the ghosts.", added Kim.

"You seem like the strongest of the bunch, wouldn't it seem? How about we take your Pokemon first?", asked Kai, but Ash still didn't say a word.

"We'll take that as a yes.", answered Kim and Kai as they got out their Pokeballs. Then, a blue light flared out from underneath Ash's hood, causing Kim and Kai to jump in shock.

"W-What the… what's that?", asked Kail, who was busy standing behind Kim and Kai, who were backing away in fear at the Aura Sphere Ash was building up with his hands.

Ash then silently released the Aura Sphere, which slammed into Kim and Kai, causing an explosion and shock waves that slammed into Kim, knocking the three brothers onto the ground.

"Let's get outta here!", shouted the three brothers as they ran the other way, past the group and towards Celadon City, and the group just began to walk past and continue their way along Route 8.

"Man… that was a close one… ", huffed Ritchie, who was sweating in fear at the time, and the others held similar expressions as well.

"I thought we were done for, for sure.", exclaimed Kenny, who was leaning on a tree to support himself, along with the others.

"Whatever. We should leave before anything else happens.", mumbled Paul as he began to walk in front of the group, and the others reluctantly followed him back onto the route.

The group had been walking for an hour or so down the route, and at that time Ash noticed Misty walking closer to him, but keeping her head down as he walked.

"Misty? What is it?", asked Ash, who had noticed her after a few minutes of her walking alone, and Misty lifted his head at the question.

"I've just been thinking… about those three. I remember them in Viridian, and they even tried to sabotage my Gym exams. I could have taken them on myself, you know.", explained Misty.

Ash nodded. "But… I felt like I needed to do something… to make some use of my Aura… ", he mumbled, only for Misty to shake her head jokingly.

"It's just like you, Ash, always wanting to be the hero… ", she ranted, while smiling at the same time, and Ash rolled his eyes.

"No, it's not! I just do what's right!", exclaimed Ash, only to receive Misty's perplexed stare, and he finally realized what he was saying.

"Okay, okay, maybe I do like being the hero.", mumbled Ash, and Misty sighed in relief before talking again. "Hey, it's extra practice for that whole 'Chosen One' deal, wouldn't you think?", said Misty while laughing.

Ash groaned. "Oh, don't get me started on that. It's like the Legendaries can't do anything by themselves, yet they're supposed to have control over the world. So they end up choosing a kid who is totally unprepared for anything, and expect him to save the world multiple times. Who would like that?", explained Ash.

"Well, those adventures always felt good in the moment, that's for sure.", said Misty, and Ash nodded. "I have to agree with you there, but after a while it sounds like I'm basically Arceus's slave here."

Misty raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Slave?", she asked, but Ash cut her off before she could say anything else. "You know what, I'll just change the subject. Okay?", asked Ash, and Misty nodded.

"About what happened this morning… why did you save me? I was doing the right thing there… and you would have been okay.", mumbled Ash, until Misty scowled and turned on him.

"Are you serious? Did you seriously expect me to leave you there and not save you? You're my best friend, Ash! I… I… oh whatever… ", exclaimed Misty, finishing out her speech with a whimper.

"Thanks, Misty… I didn't know you cared for me that much… ", mumbled Ash, as his head was down, looking at the ground.

"Thanks, Ash… I would do anything to help you out.", said Misty as she walked away, feeling half happy and half depressed at the same time.

In her thoughts, she wondered to herself. Why couldn't Ash get what she was trying to say? She had been dropping hints like crazy, but the dense boy still kept on going without realizing what he was seeing.

Then again, that was one of the reasons why Misty liked him so much. She just hoped that she could get a lucky break and have Ash finally realize what she was telling him.

Misty sighed and walked towards Brock, who was crossing his arms and had a normal expression on his face.

"Did you do it?", he asked in wonder, as Misty sighed and shook her head. "No luck. Why am I even trying anymore?", she asked.

"You'll get him someday, I know that. I've known for over five years.", explained Brock, and Misty nodded. "I guess you're right, Brock. I just want this to end, though."

Misty, feeling at least content with herself, walked away from Brock, and sighed. She felt like she was battling Ash and that she couldn't keep up with him and his denseness, which would snatch her love away from her.

 _ **December 7, 2002. Unknown Location. Morning.**_

"What do you mean, destroyed?", yelled Giovanni. He had just arrived from the Orange Islands, and had returned his Flygon and was still euphoric about the Legendary he had captured, but this was some bad news.

"Sorry, boss… but that's the report we got.", stuttered Jessie, and James spoke up next. "We don't know if Archer or Domino are alive, because they were stationed there at the base when it happened.", exclaimed James.

"009? She was supposed to stay in Johto, and now two Elites are dead!", yelled Giovanni, while Meowth shuddered in fear before speaking. "Do ya want me to alert Proton to move more south in Kanto?", asked Meowth in fear.

Giovanni nodded before speaking again. "Alas, that is no matter to me anymore, for I have acquired a major tool in our plans.", he exclaimed as he brought out a Dark Ball, which the Trio gasped at.

"This Dark Ball contains Articuno from the Orange Islands. Even hours after its capture, the world's temperature has gone up by a number of degrees, while we drain this Pokemon of its power and use it for our gain!", cackled the Rocket Boss while the Trio walked away and whispered to themselves.

"Orange Islands… no way.", muttered Jessie. "If he managed to get Articuno, and the Chosen One didn't stop him, then it was done on purpose.", muttered James.

"What do ya mean, on purpose?", asked Meowth, and James continued. "Remember the last time we were on the Orange Islands? We helped out the twerp and Lugia?", asked James, while Jessie and Meowth nodded.

"We helped the twerp save the world, he was the Chosen One, and we know that from everything else that he's been in. So let's say you want to take over the world, but the Chosen One is in your way, so you kill him and his friends. Doesn't that sound like a good plan?", exclaimed James, which brought realizatio to Jessie and Meowth's faces.

"So… the boss killed the twerp just to have a shot at world domination? To he honest, that's kind of a low blow.", exclaimed Jessie.

"Sure, we wanted to take da twerp's Pikachu, but we never tried to kill him before.", said Meowth, while Jessie and James nodded in agreement. "I just tink dat dis is going to far for da boss."

"I agree, Meowth. He looks almost insane with that grin of his, but he used to be so cold and calculating. Do you think all that power he could have is going to his head?", asked James.

"I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see before we can come to any conclusions.", exclaimed Jessie.

Giovanni exited the elevator to the base's gigantic basement level and walked towards his personal balcony on the level, looking over the whole room. His personal subject was still in temporary stasis, but that was due to change soon.

"Giovanni, sir! We're all ready for the testing to begin. We'll start on your command.", exclaimed the head scientist, and the Rocket Boss nodded.

"Come out, Articuno!", shouted Giovanni as he released the Titan of Ice, which was under his control thanks to his Dark Ball. He commanded Articuno to fly through the room and into a smaller cylindrical chamber filled with small machines and cameras next to the big one housing the unknown test subject.

The chamber closed around Articuno, and the scientists began to start the testing process. The chief pushed some buttons on his setup, then pulled a huge lever on the side of the wall.

The smaller chamber lit up with light as Articuno's Legendary aura was absorbed into the machines at the top of the chamber. The scientists shielded themselves from the blinding light as the Aura was being transferred to the test subject.

Giovanni cackled as he could see Articuno being drained of its power and said power being given to his test subject, who was beginning to remove itself from its stasis.

The subject now looked stronger, and more powerful in Giovanni's eyes as the testing ended, and once the smoke cleared, Giovanni stood in awe of his subject's awesome power.

Suddenly, the subject began to get out of control, ramming into the walls of the containment chamber and attempting to break out and free itself.

"My Blinding One! What is this?", shouted Giovanni, and the scientists picked up on their boss's cry. "The subject is too powerful for our containment! He needs to be controlled!"

Giovanni grabbed his radio and pushed a button for direct communications. "Proton. I need you to move south. Find anything useful to control the subject.", he muttered into the radio, and only one response came out.

"Yes, lord Giovanni.", exclaimed Proton through the radio, and Giovanni smiled as he put it away. Even though the Rocket Boss had faced countless troubles and setbacks in this plan, he always had a backup plan, a way out, or reinforcements to keep his plans for world domination on track.

"Giovanni, sir! We can hold him for a few days, or a week at most, but by then the subject will have escaped!", shouted the head scientist as Giovanni left the room and entered back into the elevator and went up back to his office on the top floor.

As Giovanni sat back on his desk, he was immediately greeted by his secretary, Matori, who already had a lot of messages for her boss.

"Sir, Petrel insists he needs more reinforcements. After all, he is the only one stationed in Johto at the moment.", explained Matori.

"We shouldn't have that problem, because 009 was supposed to be in Johto! Pesky teenagers and their crave for adventure. Can't they follow instructions once in a while?", shouted Giovanni while Matori continued to read off more messages.

"Proton has received your command and is now heading further south into Kanto in order to find a source of control for the subject.", said Matori.

"Good. Dark Balls won't do a thing to the subject, nor will those special Pokeballs made down south, so tell him to find anything worthwhile and report back to me.", exclaimed Giovanni as he disconnected from his secretary's call.

He smiled to himself. He didn't care about those kids, nor did he worry about the situation at the moment. He had lots of trump cards he hadn't even revealed to the rest of his team, and especially the rest of the world.

 _ **December 7, 2002. Kanto Route 8. Afternoon.**_

The group had been walking on this route for a few hours now, enjoying the sights and the calmness that the route brought them, and not overexerting themselves by a lot.

The only person not in a great mood in the sunny afternoon was Dawn, who was caught in a conflict of emotions in her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier with those three oddballs, and why Paul had come to her aid.

After walking by herself for a while, Dawn finally mustered up the courage and walked up to Paul, who had his head down and was also walking to himself, away from the others.

"Okay, tough guy, spill it. Why did you want to help me out there? I could have handled it myself, you know.", exclaimed Dawn as Paul noticed her yelling in his face, and turned to face her.

Paul grunted before responding to Dawn's question. "The reasons as to why I do things are on a need-to-know basis. And you don't need to know. Got it?", explained Paul as began to walk further away, but Dawn grabbed him by the shoulder, startling him.

"Just give me a reason as to why! Why would you go all out just to help me out! You barely even know me!", shouted Dawn, but Paul didn't move an inch this time.

"A little impression can go a long way. That's all I'm saying.", explained Paul as he kept on walking, but Dawn continued to talk to him.

"Sorry for the outburst… I just was so confused as to why you would punch somebody in the face… just for me.", mumbled Dawn as she kept her head down.

"I… I just didn't want you to get hurt. That's all.", muttered Paul, and Dawn felt another confusing rush of emotions swirl through her brain at that moment.

"Well, I just wanted to say thanks for what you did there. I really appreciate it.", said Dawn with a smile, and Paul hesitated for a moment before giving a thumbs up towards Dawn then walking off with a slight grin on his face.

Dawn walked back towards the rest of her friends, as she still had a lot of questions about Paul and his personality, but there was one thing she was certain of, and that was that Paul was definitely a complicated guy, but Dawn would be there to figure out his puzzle.

"Man, what was that about? Paul smiling? I can't believe it!", exclaimed Ash in laughter as Dawn continued to tell him about her conversation with the purple-haired trainer.

"I don't know why, but it sure was fun!", said Dawn. The whole group was gathered around a fire, while they were eating dinner and retelling events and memories while sharing them to the others.

Ritchie soon tapped Ash on the shoulder, and the teen went up to talk to his old friend about old memories and new adventures, while Dawn and some of the others continued to talk together.

"Yeah? I don't buy it. The only time I saw Paul was at Snowpoint City, and he was acting like a piece of crap to all of you!", exclaimed Zoey, who was crossing her arms.

"He just has his own way of doing things, that's all. In the end, he got over his hatred for Ash after he lost to him at the Sinnoh League, so that's nice.", said Brock, who was managing the dinner while listening to the conversation.

"Well, that's good to hear. He always seemed like he had some unknown grudge against you three whenever we met in Sinnoh.", said Kenny, and the others nodded.

"I'm sure everything's alright with us and Paul now, and besides, we shouldn't be worrying about the past. We should be focusing on the future!", yelled Ash enthusiastically as he butted into the conversation again.

"Dude! Can you keep it down?", asked Trip, who was in the middle of talking with Iris and Cilan about old stories from Unova.

Dawn honestly didn't know what to think. One minute, Paul's all this independent lone wolf that doesn't bother to change for the better, but then he's this like-able guy that helps you out? This was all to confusing to her, but she promised herself she would break through and get to Paul's nice side.

As Dawn and the others continued to talk about their adventures, Paul sat away from the others, eating his dinner in silence as the stars shone from above, along with reflecting on what had happened earlier.

He didn't even know why he had helped out Dawn. Sure, she was a nice person, but he was supposed to be the lone wolf, the independent guy who doesn't need friends. His brain was in a total split, flipping from one end to another on his reasons and judgement of the situation that happened a few hours ago.

"All right, guys! We got seconds!", shouted Brock, and the rest of the group ran over to get more of their dinner. Paul was the last to react to the news, and so he ended up at the back of the line.

As the others all got their seconds and went back around the fire to eat and enjoy the warmth, Paul looked at the tray, only to see nothing left, so he went back to where he was sitting. He was fine without any food, and besides, he had many nights without food when he was on his own journeys.

"Hey, Paul!", exclaimed Dawn as he walked over to the purple-haired trainer, who looked up at her. "I saw you didn't get any seconds, so I thought I would bring some over.", explained Dawn as she started to put some of her food on Paul's plate.

Paul didn't know what to say. Before the 2002 Sinnoh League, he didn't listen to anyone who tried to help him change, including his brother Reggie, but after his loss to Ash he learned to be more open to others, so he took the extra food without saying a word.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Paul stood up and spoke. "Why? You could have ate all that extra food, so why give some to me?", he asked, but Dawn just smiled.

"Just think of it as repaying the favor. You helped me out, I'll help you out.", exclaimed Dawn as she left and walked back to the campfire. Dawn still didn't know what to expect from Paul, but she knew that it was nice to finally talk to him a lot.

"So, Dawn. What was it this time?", asked Kenny suspiciously as she went back to the benches along the campfire and sat down next to the others.

Dawn raised an eyebrow, then began to speak. "No need to worry! He didn't get any seconds, so I decided to give him some of mine. Besides, it was just repaying the favor for what he did earlier today.", she explained as she began to eat more of her food.

"Hmph. I think he doesn't deserve any of that attention. He's still a jerk.", mumbled Kenny as he walked off and sat down on the ground, pouting.

Dawn stayed silent as her childhood friend walked off and sat on the ground, eating his seconds in silence, until Barry spoke up.

"Dawn, just leave him be. He'll get over it in the morning, no doubt about it.", exclaimed Barry as he began to shovel his food into his mouth at an alarming speed, prompting Ash to do the same and start a competition while the others sweatdropped at the scene.

"Typical Ash, doing anything to win a food-eating contest.", said Misty as she walked over and sat down next to the Pallet Town trainer. "I don't do it all the time! I barely get any competition!", he yelled, still having some food in his mouth.

As Ash and Barry continued to shovel more and more food into their stomachs to see who could come out on top, Misty sighed to herself and looked up into the beautiful night sky.

She barely knew Dawn, only meeting her from the occasional video phone call Ash and Brock had made from Sinnoh, but she had respect for her already. Misty never had the courage to go straight up to Ash and tell him something directly, but Dawn was able to do it almost instantly.

'Maybe', Misty thought to herself, 'it's time to make a change. How about I go straight up to Ash and finally tell him how I feel. I know it'll take time, but I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end.', she finished as she smiled, looked up at the stars, and continued to enjoy the beautiful night she was having with her friends.

Ash, finished off from a close victory against Barry in the food-eating competition, went back to the campfire and sat down next to Misty. He knew there was something different about her than his other female traveling companions, but there was just something he was missing from the equation.

"Hey, Ash." Ash looked up to see Misty facing him, and she put a hand on his shoulder. "Enjoying the night?", she asked as Ash thought to himself for a second.

"Yeah… this is great. We all needed a break from the whole 'Rocket trying to kill us' stuff, don't you think?", exclaimed Ash as he went closer to Misty on the bench.

"Ash! Misty! Who else wants to play Manhunt?", yelled Ritchie from behind a nearby tree, and the two friends got up immediately and joined the others for, finally, a much-needed break from the tension from the past week.

 _ **December 7, 2002. Kanto Route 10. Night.**_

Proton adjusted his newly-made Rainbow Rocket hat as he walked down Route 10 along with his personal team of Rocket Grunts as he stared out onto the rest of the trail.

He had requested reinforcements from Giovanni earlier that day, considering that he was the only Elite in Kanto after the incident at the Celadon Base. However, he was confident that his small team was able to at least make the trek to the next town before reinforcements came in.

He and his team of Grunts continued to walk under the cover of darkness, completely unnoticed by any trainer who was surprisingly out this late and also making the trek down south.

"Proton, sir!", exclaimed one of his Grunts, which made the Rocket Executive turn around to face him. "Yes. What is it?", he asked, in confusion.

"We've received word from the boss that reinforcements will be arriving from Johto at midnight, which will be made up of… uh… Petrel and his entire team.", explained the Grunt, leaving Proton in shock.

Why would the boss send Petrel and his team to him? Last thing he knew, Petrel and Domino were stationed in Johto, with their own team of Grunts, but he guessed that due to the Celadon incident and Domino's supposed death, Giovanni had decided to send Petrel over to Kanto, having no more use to the west.

As Proton and his team kept on walking in the night, the stars shone brighter and brighter on the team of Rocket Grunts, and so they had to hide under some rocks that were located on the bottom of the mountainous terrain on this route.

The small squad of Rockets eventually climbed up a small detour off the main path to a nearby cliff, and decided to enjoy the view of Southern Kanto for a bit before continuing their trek.

Proton stared at the skylines of the southern cities of Kanto with a steeled look on his face. He was meant to serve Giovanni, and following his boss's orders meant that he would go through these cities and scour them for any useful information or ideas.

His eyes soon turned to a small area of lights, capped off by a large tower which stood out from the small buildings around it. Proton was sure that something seemed off about this town than any of the other cities, and maybe that oddness would contain some useful information inside.

Proton went back to his team and gathered them all together. "What is it, Proton? Where are we going?", asked one Grunt, to which the Executive pointed directly south.

"Start preparing for Lavender Town."

* * *

 **That chapter was really a lot to get through, and I'm relieved I finally did it. And for any Contestshipping fans out there, it is coming. I've made sure to put some scenes with May and Drew in later chapters, but this one belongs to the other pairings I've made out in the story. As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	12. XI - Secrets in Saffron

**I'm back, everyone! I had a good time writing this chapter as well, since it sets up an upcoming conflict that our heroes get tangled up in... again. But nevertheless, I hope you all have fun reading this chapter along with the rest of the story!**

 **Sadly, there were no more new reviews between the last chapter being posted and as of right now, so there will once again be no review responses today. Now, on with the adventure!**

* * *

 _ **The Eighteen**_

Chapter 12

Secrets in Saffron

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Kanto Route 7. Sunrise.**_

"Come on, guys! You gotta see the sunrise!", yelled Ash into May's tent, which she shared with Drew and her brother Max.

May opened her eyes, put her shoes on, and walked out of the tent in her pajamas to stare out at the beautiful sight in front of her. The group had decided to set up camp on a small ledge above the main route path, and from there you could see the sun shine on the Kantonian Sea to the east and the metropolis of Celadon to the west.

She turned around to see Drew and Max get out of the tent and look on in awe at the sky, which was teeming with bright yellow and pink colors.

"It's amazing… ", muttered May in awe as she looked at the rising sun, until she noticed the others coming out of their tents and looking at the amazing sight.

"Now, this is a good way to get up in the morning.", exclaimed Brock. "Now, who wants breakfast?", he said as he speedily got his supplies out of his backpack and started to cook.

May didn't notice this, but Drew had walked up next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I can't believe we don't get to see this kind of stuff in Hoenn.", he commented as he pointed out towards the sky.

"Well, yeah, but Hoenn does have its perks.", smirked May, but Drew was having none of it. "Like what? The extreme temperatures? This is more like it.", he explained playfully.

They turned around to the sounds of everyone else eating their food, and rushed back to the campsite as quickly as possible and began to eat.

"You know, this is what I missed about traveling. The sights, the sounds, maybe even the annoying Pokemon trainers… ", exclaimed Misty, only to get Ash's full attention.

"I'm not _that_ annoying!", yelled Ash, but Misty shoved him playfully. "Yeah, whatever. It's just a joke.", she exclaimed as she finished her food.

Having finished her food, May turned towards Drew and pulled him over. "What do you think? Isn't traveling with others great?", she asked, trying to get his opinion.

Drew shrugged. "It's fine, I guess. Better than going alone and sleeping alone in a tent or a Pokemon Center every night." May smiled and walked back into the tent, while Drew finished his food.

* * *

"All right, guys! Let's head out!", exclaimed Ash enthusiastically as he looked at the others, who were also ready to set back out onto the path. The gang started to walk down the small hill they had camped on and were now walking towards Saffron City.

As they began to walk on the path, Brock noticed that Ash was back to wearing his old outfit from Kalos, with his hooded disguise tacked on as well.

"Ash, how come you aren't wearing those Aura Guardian clothes?", asked Brock suspiciously, causing Ash to think for a moment to answer.

"I guess I just prefer normal training clothes, and I thought that if I wore normal clothes I could stand out less and we wouldn't be spotted by others.", explained Ash, and the others seemed to understand now.

"Good thinking. The last thing we need is somebody figuring out who we are.", said Serena, and from their facial expressions it seemed that the others were in agreement.

As the group started to walk they noticed that there were less and less people were traveling through the route due to the postponed Leagues, and more Pokemon were going onto the flat path, making it hard for the group to avoid clusters of them walking through the path.

"How come there are so little people on the routes? Wouldn't they keep traveling and training their Pokemon?", exclaimed Ash while he was talking to some of the others.

"But the Leagues are still postponed, and most big-city Pokemon Centers have battling and training areas for people and their Pokemon as well, and so most people are staying in one place for the time being.", explained Leaf.

"True, but nothing beats going out into the wilderness and battling against other Pokemon!", said Ash, and Misty sighed to herself. "I knew you would say something like that.", she commented as she continued to walk along with the others.

"What? That's just who I am!", defended Ash, but after seeing the others' playful faces he realized it all was a joke, and began to walk faster on the dirt path.

"Well, we might be able to reach Saffron City in an hour or so, and there might be a lot of people in the Pokemon Center.", explained Brock.

"What are we waiting for? Let's move!", explained Ash as he ran away from the others, who struggled to keep up with him as they ran towards the skyline of Saffron.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Kanto Route 10. Morning.**_

"Hey, Commander? When are we gonna get outta this place?", asked another anxious Rocket Grunt, who had taken his mind off of playing cards with his buddies.

Proton was furious. Petrel and his team were supposed to arrive three days ago, and he hadn't received any communication from his team that was stationed in Johto, leaving his squad bored and helpless in the rocky hills of Eastern Kanto.

"No, I don't. We'll begin making preparations for Lavender Town as soon as Petrel arrives.", explained Proton while grinding his teeth. They were almost out of food supplies and his team was just slacking off and playing cards all day long.

"Okay, Commander.", exclaimed the Grunt as he turned back to his game, while Proton paced around the temporary campsite, still angry about Petrel being late to the party.

From this instance, Proton almost felt like he was the most competent Rocket Executive. Archer and Domino had managed to blow themselves up in Celadon, and Petrel was busy being late in Johto.

His thoughts stopped short when he remembered Ariana, the last Executive, who mostly stayed around at the main base. Rumor had it that she might have had an affair with Giovanni, which is why she was kept out of the action at the moment.

But he, the great Proton of Team Rocket, was stuck here with the rest of his Grunts, playing cards and eating up his whole stash of food. He cursed to himself, knowing that he would have to pay extra for the food bill.

He turned towards the south and stared out at Lavender Town, complete with its seven-story Pokemon Tower, which was used as a gravesite for Pokemon, and Proton grimaced at the sight.

He could have already infiltrated the city and taken anything of value along with his team, and Petrel along with his team, but he just had to be stuck here with these bottom-feeder Grunts, complete with cigarettes and playing cards.

"Commander Proton! Wanna join our game?", asked another Grunt, and Proton turned around to face him. He was exhausting himself by pacing around and thinking like this, so the least he could do was relax for a bit by playing some cards.

Proton sighed to himself and sat down on the logs that his team was using for a bench. He got his own hand of cards, and started to play along with his teammates. If Petrel wasn't going to drop out of the sky at this very moment, Proton could feel content with himself by slacking off and playing cards.

"So, do ya have any threes?"

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Outskirts of Saffron City. Morning.**_

"Here we are! It's Saffron City!", exclaimed Brock as she walked into the gates of the sprawling metropolis in Central Kanto, followed by the rest of the others.

"It's been a while since we've been here, hasn't it?", asked Misty, then suddenly shivering from the bad memories she had while in this city.

"Misty, don't worry, that was five years ago. Besides, the last time I was here went a lot differently. May even won her first Kanto Ribbon here!", exclaimed Ash enthusiastically.

"Oh, don't even get me started on that Contest. I almost didn't enter because Harley tried to make me not get a Contest Pass for that season.", explained May while sweat dropping.

"Oh yeah! I remember you just running all around the Pokemon Center, looking for the Contest judges so you could get a pass.", said Drew with a finger pointed in the air, while May blushed and turned away.

"Well, whoever this Harley person is, he doesn't seem like a nice guy.", exclaimed Dawn, and some of the others nodded their heads as well.

"He's sort of like Conway, in the sense that you don't know what he's going to do next.", said Brock, causing Dawn to nod in understanding.

"All right! Now that we're done with that, how about we go explore the city? It's not like we have anything else to do.", said Serena, and it looked like the others were in agreement as well.

"I say we do it! I haven't had the time to shop in ages!", exclaimed May enthusiastically, and the rest of the group held similar expressions in that regard.

"Eh, why not. Serena's right, it's not like we have anything else to do here.", said Clemont as he and the group began to walk around the massive metropolis it.

"I have an idea. How about we each split up into groups of two, and we'll meet back here at… let's say two o'clock. Is that okay?", asked Brock, and the others immediately went to work dividing themselves into groups.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Pallet Town, Kanto. Morning.**_

Cynthia turned around from her computer to see Alder push open the office door, still half asleep, and stumble towards his desk, which he subsequently fell asleep on again.

"Arceus, Alder. This is not the time to be sleeping on the job!", exclaimed Cynthia, but Alder only responded with a snore or two from his desk.

Steven, sighing at the sight, walked over towards Cynthia's desk. "Can you believe that there hasn't been any Rocket activity for three days? I'm starting to wonder if they've bypassed our transmission-intercepting techniques.", said Steven curiously.

"I just bet you they're sitting still and planning their next move. We all have to be ready for when they strike next, and that _includes_ having good sleep schedules.", exclaimed Cynthia while glaring towards Alder, who was still fast asleep.

"We don't have time to rest. If Giovanni's planning something, we have to plan a counter to that strategy.", exclaimed Lance.

"Well, said, Captain Obvious.", said Wallace as he walked into the main office. "At least we've had a few days to gather our thoughts and plan a strategy to deal with Giovanni, and the public outrage has stepped down a bit."

After a minute or so of working, Lance spoke up again. "Don't you just hate this part of conflict where the two sides are stuck in one place, and there's no action going on? That's what we're going through right here. And I hate it."

"Every war has its action and its ceasefires, Lance. Just wait it out and come up with a plan.", said Diantha as she went back to her desk to work.

"So… your plan is to wait for Giovanni to do something? And then counter back?", asked Cynthia hysterically. "That's the worst plan I've ever heard of?"

"Yeah, what if he does something else, like what he did at Shamouti? How are you going to counter that after the fact?", exclaimed Steven.

Lance sighed, and looked at the floor for a good minute before screaming at the top of his lungs. "What! Do you have any _better_ ideas?!", he yelled, causing the others to cover their ears.

"Arceus, Lance! Lighten up a little!", said Diantha as she took her hands off her ears. Lance was about to respond to the Kalosian Champion, but he was stopped short.

The group turned to see Alder, sharply awoken from Lance's outburst, walk around to face them. "I think I have a good plan… it's called getting some breakfast. Sounds good?"

Lance cracked a smile as Alder and the others walked downstairs to eat, and the Indigo Champion followed suit shortly after.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Saffron City, Kanto. Morning.**_

Ash stood in awe at the amazing view he was staring at. You could see an outline of basically the whole region from the observation deck of the Silph Co. headquarters building.

"The view's amazing, isn't it?", exclaimed Misty. In the midst of chaos that was choosing groups, Misty had gone with Ash, and right now they were looking out at the whole region on a clear, sunny day.

"Yeah… I can't believe you can see the whole region from up here… ", said Ash, and Misty nodded.

Misty pulled back all her pessimistic thoughts for this moment. Right now, she just wanted to be with Ash, and not let it be ruined by her thoughts and fears of confessing her feelings to him.

"Isn't it great? Just us being here… we haven't really been able to do that since Johto… ", mumbled Misty, and Ash walked over and stood right next to her.

"I know that we haven't spent a lot of time together since you left for the Cerulean Gym, but you're still my best friend, Misty. And don't ever forget that!", exclaimed Ash, but he couldn't help but feel something different towards the redhead standing next to him.

His heart always seemed to thunder whenever he talked to her a lot during their recent time shared together, which he never had when talking to any other of his female traveling companions. He had been meaning to talk to Brock about this, but with what had happened ever since he got back home to Kanto, he had forgotten about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Misty cracked a smile. Even if Ash could be extremely dense at times, he always cared for his friends, and that would never change as long as he kept his messy hair, goofy smile, and amazing personality by his side.

"I won't, Ash. Not with you here constantly reminding me.", said Misty, and after a moment of silence, they broke into fits of laughter as they continued to enjoy their time up on the roof.

* * *

"Come on, Drew! We have more stores to look at!", exclaimed May as she dragged her fellow Coordinator across the street into another designer store. May and Drew had gone as a group when they and the others split up into pairs to explore the city, and with May, that meant a major shopping spree.

May then let go of Drew, who started to catch his breath. "You know… there are more stores in Celadon… couldn't you have just gone there?"

"I would have wanted to, but we were dealing with Team Rocket and Ash, so… I just thought we could go shopping here!", exclaimed May as she ran into the store, followed by Drew.

"Wait, how are you going to buy anything? You can't use your Trainer ID to validate purchases, since that would blow your cover.", whispered Drew.

May thought to herself for a moment, then smiled at Drew. "Well, we're in luck! I remembered I have a bunch of Pokedollars in clean cash.", explained May.

Drew sighed to himself. He should have known that May always had something prepared for a shopping spree, regardless of the prior circumstances.

"Fine. What do you want to buy, then?", asked Drew, who was mentally preparing himself for an onslaught of items he would have to carry.

May just stood next to Drew, thinking to herself, until she came up with an idea, and Drew immediately knew it was going to be a long morning for him.

"Why… do I always… agree to this… ?", staggered Drew as he exited the store behind May, who was carrying almost no bags compared to the amount of bags in Drew's hands.

"At least you didn't have to pick out all this stuff to buy by yourself, because that was a lot of work!", explained May. She was secretly hoping that Drew would like the outfit she picked for him, and because of that she wanted him to be in a good mood.

Drew sighed and continued to carry the bags. He always enjoyed being around May and traveling with her, but when she found a nearby mall, her mind immediately went from Contests straight to shopping in a split second.

He looked up to see May sitting on a nearby bench, and Drew was as determined as ever to just reach the bench and be able to rest for the first time that whole morning.

* * *

"Dee Dee! What's the hold up?", asked Kenny. He had gone with Dawn to explore the city, but he didn't understand why she wasn't being her usual happy self.

Dawn didn't respond to Kenny's question, but she did walk up to him and was alongside him instead of far behind the male Coordinator.

"I just want to know, Dee Dee? Why are you so upset?", said Kenny, but Dawn wouldn't budge. She still was walking with her head down, obviously upset about something.

After a moment of silence, Dawn began to speak. "I… I don't really know why… but you wouldn't understand.", she mumbled, leaving Kenny as confused as ever.

While the perplexed Kenny was figuring out the meaning behind Dawn's words, Dawn herself was figuring out the emotional conflict in her brain at that very moment.

The past four days had created a whirlwind of opinions and emotions inside of Dawn's head, but it all stemmed from one person, that being Paul.

She didn't know why, but she had enjoyed talking to him recently, and he seemed like a nice guy if you got to know him well, but that didn't excuse the fact that he used to be a ruthless Pokemon Trainer who treated his Pokemon with cruelty, two things that Dawn did not want to associate herself with.

On the other hand, he had seemed to change and become a better person after the 2001 Sinnoh League, and she was glad that he had protected her from those three buffoons back on Route 7, but those two sides of Paul combined just caused so much conflict inside her head.

Along with the emotional turmoil for the past four days, it was bad enough that she was stuck with Kenny for the morning. He was a good friend and all, but his sometimes annoying personality really got on her nerves.

"Fine. You don't have to talk. Let's just get this over with and meet back with the others.", grumbled Kenny as he walked away, being followed by Dawn shortly after.

* * *

"COME ON! Paul, you've gotta check this out!", yelled Barry into Paul's ears, causing him to cover them due to how loud Barry was yelling.

"Arceus, Barry. Can't you shut up once in a while?", grumbled Paul as Barry ran on ahead, and subsequently slammed into a pole two feet in front of him.

Paul sighed to himself and walked over to Barry, since the least thing he could do was help him up. These past four days had also taken a toll on the purple-haired trainer, and he wished he could have some alone time to think about it.

But, wishes don't always come true. Barry, being the hyper fanboy that he was, dragged him off around the city and depriving him of his much-needed time to think about the thoughts swirling in his brain.

Dawn was a nice person to be around, he knew that for sure, but he barely knew her very well. But, why did his instinct overcome him and cause him to attempt to protect her from those three kids back on Route 7?

Paul couldn't find an answer in his normally calm mind. The best thing he could come up with was that he just acted recklessly and jumped in to save a friend, but he had his doubts with this.

Was he really worthy of being a friend to Dawn? He had acted extremely rude to Ash, her, and Brock, along with his own Pokemon during his journey in Sinnoh, but he had changed after that Sinnoh League. He had vowed to make amends with his Pokemon, and maybe even make new friends along the way.

"Oh, Paul! You gotta see this!", exclaimed Barry, who was pointing at something Paul couldn't make out, but he still walked over to the hyperactive trainer.

Paul shrugged to himself, as maybe just walking around the city peacefully could clear his mind and help him think of why he felt strangely towards a blue-haired Coordinator.

* * *

"Ash! Misty! What took you guys so long?", asked Clemont. Every other group had shown up at a food court in the city's largest mall, and they were all waiting for Ash and Misty to show up so that they could all get together again.

"Hey, at least we're here in one piece!", exclaimed Ash goofily, and Misty rolled her eyes and sat down next to the others, followed by Ash shortly after.

"So, what did you guys do out in the city?", asked Brock, and immediately the others began retelling what they did in the city that morning to the rest of the group.

"Misty and I went to the top of the Silph Co. building. The view was incredible from there!", exclaimed Ash, but he was cut off my more and more conversations by the rest of the group.

"I wish I could have gone there, but Serena dragged me to all the bakeries and food shops in the whole city! I couldn't keep up at all… ", mumbled Clemont.

"Ritchie and I went to the Fighting Dojo, and we battled with the Dojo Masters!", said Trip enthusiastically, prompting remarks from Ash about the last time he visited the place during his Battle Frontier run.

"Wait. Did any of you stop by the Saffron Gym at all?", asked Max, but he was met by glares from Ash, Misty and Brock.

"No way am I ever going back there. That was the most traumatizing experience of my life!", shouted Misty as Max backed away in fear.

"What… what happened to you guys there?", stuttered Max, which prompted curiosity from the rest of the group as well as Ash, Misty, and Brock shared a look before talking.

"Well, here's the short story. I got creamed in my first match while Misty and Brock got turned into dolls and explored Sabrina's dollhouse, and I only won on my rematch because I made her… laugh.", explained Ash, who lowered his voice once he remembered that he didn't win his badge through a victorious battle.

"You won because you made Sabrina laugh?!", exclaimed Gary while hysterically laughing. "Ashy-boy, you've had a long history of stupid things, but this takes the cake!", shouted the Pokemon researcher as he fell to the ground, laughing.

"I know it's stupid, but Ash did win a Rainbow Badge by saving Erika's Gloom from a fire, and he only got in because he dressed up as a girl!", exclaimed Misty, while Ash put his head in his hands.

This revelation made Gary roll on the floor with laughter, and the rest of the group were cracking up as well, but Ash was just sitting there, half laughing and half mad.

"All right. Now that that's over, what did you do, May?", asked Iris, and May pointed to the table right next to them, which was full of shopping bags.

May grabbed each bag and brought it towards the front table and brought all of the items out, which she placed on the table.

"What did I do? Oh, I don't know, go on a ginormous shopping spree!", exclaimed May loudly as the others gawked at the amount of items she had bought.

"For the record, I was the one carrying all of those bags, not her. Just saying.", muttered Drew as he stood up from his seat.

"Wait, May. What's in that last bag over there?", asked Max curiously as he pointed to the one remaining bag on the table next to them.

May looked flustered, and a blush had formed on her cheeks. "Well-I-It's just another thing I bought from the store, that's all.", she stuttered, trying to get this conversation over as quickly as possible.

Drew turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I don't remember you buying that from any of the stores we went to."

"I-It's nothing, really. Just another souvenir, and nothing to be worried about.", stammered May, and she remained tense until Drew and the others stopped asking her questions.

May sighed in relief as she put the lone bag into her backpack, and then turned back to the others, who already had started more conversations about their experiences in the big city.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Saffron City Gym. Noon.**_

Sabrina was in the middle of her traditional middle-day meditation training to continue boosting her strong psychic abilities, until she noticed some odd psychic signatures within the city's boundaries.

She closed her eyes as she scoped through all of the psychic signatures in the city, which was used as a routine inspection to nail down any criminals based on their specific psychic signatures.

Once she reached a large mass of psychic signatures that Sabrina presumed was the city mall, she braced herself for the amount of people she would have to see, and the power required to study all those psychic signatures took its toll on her strength.

After a few minutes of looking at psychic signatures, Sabrina came across one that was familiar to her, followed by two more familiar ones.

Upon realizing who these psychic signatures belonged to, Sabrina's eyes shot open and she totally lost her concentration, causing the spoons she was bending in the meantime to clatter on the floor.

Sabrina regained her composure and spread her arms to her side, concentrating once again on those three familiar psychic signatures, and the ones surrounding them as well.

Sabrina's entire body glowed pink, completely flushed out with psychic energy. She concentrated as hard as she could, until the sound of multiple bodies hitting the floor broke her silence.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Saffron City, Kanto. Noon.**_

Drew looked at the rest of the group, who were enjoying their lunch and explaining what they did on their morning in the city, until he saw May, who was silent and had her head down.

May looked up to see Drew walk over and sit down next to her, and she turned to face him, trying to act like she was fine.

"May? Is everything okay?", asked Drew, who looked seriously concerned for the brunette Coordinator.

May brushed her hair aside and smiled, trying to convey the expression that everything was fine. "I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

Despite May's comments, Drew could tell that something wasn't right with her. "Are you sure? You can tell me anything, and I'll help you out any way I can.", he asked.

May looked at the floor for a couple of seconds, until she brought her head up. "Thanks for asking, but I'm fine. Seriously.", stammered May.

Drew raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but May remained silent for a few seconds, not saying a word.

"Drew, I-It's nothing. I really appreciate the help, but I'm fine.", stammered May as she kept her head down, afraid of facing her friends, especially Drew.

"I totally understand, May. You can come to me whenever you need help. Just call me, and I'll be there.", exclaimed Drew while flicking his hair, but he was acting sincere.

"I-I don't know what to say… ", mumbled May, who was surprised that Drew would go this far to help her. "Thanks, Drew. I really appreciate it."

"It's nothing, really. I'm just helping out one of my best friends.", exclaimed Drew, who was actually showing a genuinely nice side of himself to May.

"Wait. Do any of you guys feel weird or something right now?", announced Ash as he interrupted May and Drew's conversation, causing them and the others to turn to him.

"What do you mean, Ash?", asked Max, but at that very moment, he felt something tug in his chest, almost like it wanted to pull him somewhere.

"Okay, everyone grab their stuff, just to be safe.", exclaimed Brock, and he and the others got to work taking their food and souvenirs, and preparing for the worst.

"What are we even preparing fo-", asked Ash, but he was cut off by the screams of himself and the others as they were teleported off to another place.

* * *

Ash and the gang suddenly found themselves on the marble floor of a completely different building. Ash got up, brushed himself off, and looked at his surroundings to get an idea of where he was.

Ash saw a hallway with gold columns surrounding it on a gold marble floor, and a door in the distance. There wasn't a lot of light in the room, so the walls off to the sides looked like they were a darker gold color than the floors.

Unfortunately, Ash recognized the place that he was in, and it made him shiver up in fear. "Arceus… not this. Not now… ", he mumbled as he closed his eyes and entered Aura Sight.

There weren't many traces of living Aura in the building besides him and the others, but sure enough, there was one large outline in the other room whose Aura was bright pink.

"What the… where are we?", asked Brock in confusion, until he noticed the layout of the room that he was in. "But… how did… we're totally screwed.", he muttered under his breath.

"Wait. Do you know where we are?", asked Trip, who didn't recognize the room he was in at all.

Misty gulped in her throat nervously. "Yeah… the Saffron Gym.", she said, absolutely terrified what was going to happen next.

"The Saffron Gym? Isn't that where… ", muttered Max, and the trio nodded grimly. "Yeah, this is the place.", muttered Brock.

All of a sudden, the doors swung open, revealing that the hallway in front of them led through the doorway and into a much wider room than they were currently in.

Ash started to walk towards the empty doorway, but was stopped by Brock immediately after. "Ash, don't! It could be a trap.", muttered Brock , who was worried at what Ash was doing.

"Brock, it's fine. She's already in there, I checked.", explained Ash, trying to reassure his friend. However, Brock still looked afraid, partially because of the bad memories he shared with this building.

The rest of the group followed Ash through the open doorway, and into the battlefield room, and they could see another person on the other side of the room.

That person began to walk across the battlefield, and as she got closer, she was recognized by the majority of the group.

Sabrina stopped in front of them, arms down to her sides, and nodded at Ash and the others, who just stared at her.

"Sabrina… why did you bring us here?"', asked Ash, who seemed like he was demanding for an answer.

After a long pause, the Gym Leader began to answer. "I only brought you all here is because I want to know why you're here, that's all. I managed to pick up your psychic signatures, and I was just curious as to why you're in Saffron City rather than… six feet under."

As soon as Ash was about to answer Sabrina's question, Trip walked in front of him and pointed a finger up in the air. "Isn't there another room we can talk in? Preferably one with more chairs than empty battlefields?"

"I guess we have some explaining to do.", exclaimed Iris. The whole group was seated in Sabrina's main Gym office, and they even had to pull up some extra chairs to get everyone in the room.

"So, it all started when I got home from the Kalos-"

"Oh no you don't, Ashy-boy. Leave the exposition to the experts here.", exclaimed Gary, who had completely cut Ash off.

Sabrina's face changed constantly during Gary's explanation, and she looked mortified once he finished the story. "I… I don't know what to say… I'm sorry that you all had to go through this.", she said.

"Well, now you know why we're here.", exclaimed Brock. "And please, did you throw that dollhouse into the nearest dumpster? Along with your ventriloquist dummy? Because if you didn't, I'll go right ahead and do it myself."

Ash and Misty laughed to themselves, but a majority of the people there were still confused about that last sentence.

"A dollhouse? I'm not sure I understand… ", muttered Cilan. "I'm not sure I want to understand… ", whispered Trip to Drew, who smirked at the thought.

"I threw those away years ago, so don't worry. And… one last thing before I send you off. I can sense that some of you... will forge an even stronger bond that you already have with someone else in this very room. That's all I can predict with my psychic energies.", exclaimed Sabrina, leaving the group as confused as ever.

Without leaving the group any time to think about what she just said, Sabrina started to speak again. "Im sorry if I caused any disturbances with you all. I'll send you off on your way now.", explained Sabrina as a pink glow surrounded her body, igniting her psychic energy, and the group was teleported out of the Gym and back into the city.

* * *

"So… that was… something. Great. Can we get out of here now?", asked Zoey in a mix of sarcasm and desperation. They had just been teleported back into the food court by Sabrina, and they were met with increasing stares as they had just reappeared on the table.

"I second that. I really want to get out of this place before it gets any more weird.", retorted Dawn quickly.

"Then what are we waiting for?", asked Leaf as she stood up from the chair she and the group had teleported back on. "Let's get going."

"Wait a minute. What do you think Sabrina meant when she said that?", asked Ritchie in confusion, prompting the others to think about what the Gym Leader had said to them.

"Well, she said something about us 'forging stronger bonds than we already have'... I honestly don't know what in Arceus's name she was talking about.", answered Trip, but Misty raised an eyebrow at what the Unovan trainer had mentioned.

She shot a look at Ash, who was talking with Pikachu at the moment, and wondered to herself. Did Sabrina mean that they would get together? Forge stronger bonds? She didn't know now, but she was determined to find out what the psychic meant.

"We'll just have to wait to find out, guys. Besides, we should get going anyway.", reassured Misty as she stood up from her chair.

"C'mon, Pikachu. We're leaving.", exclaimed Ash as Pikachu ran up onto his trainer's shoulder as he and the others left the food court and went out of the mall.

"Wait… what even was the purpose of that… thing we just had? Why did we spend an hour doing nothing but talking? It makes no sense to me.", exclaimed Serena.

"Well, what if we're all just characters in some sort of story, and the writer is making us do meaningless things just to fill up more pages?", asked Max.

Everyone turned to stare at Max in utter confusion as to why he would blurt out something as random as what he just said.

"What is in your head, man? That's gotta be the weirdest thing I've ever heard!", exasperated Iris. "Come on, Max. I think you've had enough for today.", retorted May as she walked over and dragged her brother away from Iris and Serena, who were laughing to themselves.

* * *

"So… do we have any idea as to where we're going now?", asked Gary. The group had left the mall and now were at the outskirts of the city, looking for a path to take.

"According to my Pokegear, we can either take Route 6 to Vermillion City, or Route 8 to Lavender Town. So, which way do you want to take?", exclaimed Brock.

A cacophony of voices rang out immediately after Brock finished his sentence, and nobody could figure out what they were saying, especially Brock, who was at the forefront of it all.

"Please, everybody! Calm down! Let's vote on this.", reassured Leaf. "Okay. Raise your hands if you want to go to Lavender Town."

A few hands raised up into the air, notably from Kenny, Max, and Clemont, but that was all for that side of the vote. The people who hadn't raised their hands stood silently, eager to get on with the process.

"Good. Now, who wants to go to Vermillion City?", continued Leaf, and lots of hands shot up at once, which included Ash, Misty, Barry, and Dawn, among some others.

Leaf took a look at the results, and lifted her head up again. "The people have spoken. We're going to Vermillion City.", she spoke. "How hard was that?", she asked mockingly.

"At least it has a port. I want to get out of this region as quickly as possible.", muttered Paul as he started to walk along Route 6, which led to Vermillion City.

"After all we've been through over the past two weeks, don't we all?", retorted Cilan, sending smirks and chuckles across the group.

"Wherever we go, I just hope it's Hoenn. I can't wait to set foot in my home region again… ", exclaimed May hopefully.

"Wait… but didn't Articuno's capture lead to temperatures rising? Hoenn's got to be a wasteland by now.", corrected Drew, causing May to fall over anime style. "Please, Drew. Don't put me down like that!", exasperated May.

Drew smirked and flicked his hair. "Oh, please. You know that's my job, May.", he fired back, while giving Ash a fist bump and Trip a high five as the others had come over to hear what was going on.

"Wow, May. You need a Burn Heal for that?.", giggled Zoey, causing others to speak up as well and add to the fun.

"Ha ha, very funny. Now can we get on with it and keep walking?", complained May, who was getting tired of the jokes and playful insults, and so she walked ahead of the others.

* * *

Gary, who had been hanging around with Drew and Ash, noticed that Leaf was behind them all, looking through something on her X-Transceiver and not being part of the group, so he decided to walk up to her.

Leaf looked up to see Gary standing in front of her, his arms crossed and a determined look on his face. "What is it, Gary?", she asked tiredly.

"Leaf, you gotta lighten up a little. Why don't you come and hang out with us?", exclaimed Gary, but Leaf was having none of it at that moment.

"If you must know, Gary, just because I'm on a field mission doesn't mean I still have work to do as a G-Men agent.", retorted Leaf as she looked back down at her X-Transceiver.

Gary sighed and crossed his arms once more. "Leaf, everyone is having a good time out here, and it feels bad to see you not having fun compared to the rest of us.", explained Gary as he swung his arm to reveal the rest of the group talking and hanging out together.

"Gary, I don't have all day. I need to report to Lance in five minutes, and try to explain to hiwhy I'm still out here and not back at Pallet Town.", huffed Leaf. She really wanted to get this conversation over with as fast as possible, but Gary wouldn't let that happen so quickly.

"Wait. Did you say Pallet Town?", asked Gary, clearly confused by Leaf's last sentence. "Yeah, Lance and crew have set up shop there after Indigo Plateau was destroyed.", explained Leaf.

"Oh… I see.", exclaimed Gary. "As I was saying, you really should at least try to hang out with us. I would appreciate it, and so would everyone else here."

Leaf scowled. She really had better and more important things to do at the moment, but she could at least relax, if it was only for a little while.

"Fine, Garebear. I'll 'hang out with the crew'. Is that fine?", snarked Leaf, as she pushed Gary aside and walked up towards the others, who turned around to face her.

"Hey, Leaf! Nice of you to finally join us.", exclaimed Ash, while he noticed Gary sighing to himself. "What happened now, Gary?", he asked in confusion.

"Oh, old Garebear here hates old nicknames. Especially ones from childhood.", smirked Leaf, and Gary put his head in his hands. "I've told you this since I was five! Don't call me Garebear, _Leafy_!", he shouted.

"That's so sweet!", gushed Zoey. "You both have nicknames for each other! It's a true sign of a beautiful relationship!", squealed Dawn in amazement.

Gary and Leaf scowled and turned away from each other, but a blush was still present on their faces. "You still kept those nicknames? I didn't expect that!", exclaimed Ash in surprise.

"Yeah. So what if I did, Ashy-boy? Is there a problem?", grumbled Gary, but Leaf stopped him in his tracks. "Gary. Not the time.", muttered Leaf intensely, causing him to back down, an angry expression still on his face.

Ritchie, who was observing the commotion, turned to Ash and whispered in his ear. "Does this happen all the time?", he asked in confusion to his old friend.

Ash smiled and nodded his head. "Oh yeah. All the time."

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Unknown Location. Afternoon.**_

"Matori! Where in the world is Petrel! He hasn't been heard from in over three days!", shouted Giovanni. These past three days were an incredibly incompetent showing by Petrel, who was a good master of disguise, but a bad strategist.

"Sir, our last transmission from December 7th detected that Petrel was heading on Route 44, towards the Johto Ice Path. We haven't heard from him since.", explained Matori to the Rocket Boss through his computer screen.

"That bastard! Can't he know how to use a map for once!", grumbled Giovanni as he paced around his main office, extremely angry with his incompetent Executives.

"You know what? Just send a helicopter to pick up Petrel and his team. I've had enough of this nonsense.", exclaimed Giovanni in disgust, and Matori began typing up something on her computer.

"Where do you want to send them to, sir? Proton and his team is booked for Lavender Town, so should we airlift Petrel there as well?", asked Matori.

"Lavender Town? There's hardly anything useful there besides a bunch of Haunter. Send them to Vermillion, at least more things go in and out of there than a ghost town.", explained Giovanni.

"At once, sir.", exclaimed Matori as she typed some more on her computer, and Giovanni disconnected the call. "Maybe now I can get those idiots into place in Vermillion.", he muttered to himself.

To Giovanni's dismay, there was a crack in his office door that was wide enough for a person to peek through, and unfortunately there was one person doing just that.

A slender woman with red hair in an Executive uniform looked through the crack in the door, and brought out what looked like a small radio, turned the knob, and began to speak into it.

"I have a tip. Multiple Rockets are heading towards Vermillion City. Best if you get there before you do.", whispered the woman quietly into the radio.

Ariana put the radio back in her pocket and walked away from Giovanni's office, pretending to mind her own business in front of suspicious Grunts walking around the halls.

Suddenly, another voice came through the radio, causing Ariana to panic in fear and run to another corner of the hallway. "Wait a minute! Thanks for the tip, but who are you? Can we trust you?", exclaimed the voice through the radio.

"You can trust me, I have an inside source. And… you can call me Scarlet."

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Pallet Town, Kanto. Afternoon.**_

"Scarlet? What kind of stupid code name is that?", laughed Steven hysterically as the radio transmission ended, and the others in the room started to chuckle to themselves as well.

"Just forget the name, Steven. Whoever sent us this at least tried to help us out, so we should appreciate the lucky break we just got.", exclaimed Lance, trying to calm everyone else down.

"Fine. So what are we waiting for? We should book it to Vermillion City before any of the Rockets get there.", said Wallace in confusion.

"All right, all right. We just need to pack up supplies, and then we can leave for Vermillion City as soon as we're done.", explained Cynthia.

"Uh… can we wait for another thirty minutes? My pizza's gonna be delivered by then., muttered Alder with a sheepish grin.

Diantha sighed to herself. "Fine. We'll wait for the pizza, and enjoy takeout on the way to Vermillion. Or we can just leave _now_ and eat at one of Vermillion City's amazing port restaurants.", she retorted.

"Fine! Just give me a sec to cancel the order.", mumbled Alder as he opened up his X-Transceiver. "Hello, Pika Pizza? Yeah, this is Alder… can you cancel that order I just sent five minutes ago… yeah, thanks."

Cynthia put her head in her hands as she opened the door and walked outside of the laboratory, where the other Champions were waiting outside, except Alder, of course.

"So, where is he now?", exclaimed Lance as he shook his head in disgust, while Cynthia stepped up. "I believe still cancelling his pizza order.", the Sinnoh Champion said.

A few minutes later, they heard the sound of Alder tumbling down the stairs and slamming open the door, only to fall down the front porch and land on his face.

"Order's… cancelled… let's go… ", mumbled Alder as he brushed himself off, released his Volcarona, and climbed on his back.

"All right, let's do this!", shouted Wallace as he got onto the back of his Milotic and started Surfing on the water, while Cynthia, Steven, Lance, and Alder flew on their Pokemon and Diantha, along with her Gardevoir, Teleported towards the big port city of Kanto.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Johto Route 44. Afternoon.**_

"Petrel! We're outta supplies and I'm freezing in here!", shouted an extremely cold Rocket Grunt. Petrel and his team were trapped in the ancient Johtonian Ice Path, famous for freezing temperatures and ice puzzles created by cold travelers.

"I don't know, I don't know! We just have to find a way out as quickly as possible!", Petrel angrily shouted to his team of Grunts. He was starting to get restless since they had been stuck in here for over four days.

"Are ya sure ya can't do it yourself? You're da master of disguise, right?", asked another Grunt who was playing more cards at their temporary campsite in the icy cave.

Petrel screamed at his Grunts, who cowered in fear of their boss. "I may be a master of disguise, but not a master strategist! That's more of Proton's job anyway!", he yelled.

"Okay, we get it! Does anyone else have an idea of how to get out of here!, exclaimed another Grunt as he put down his cards.

 **BOOOOM!**

A huge explosion resounded in the Icy Path, causing the Grunts and Petrel to run to protect themselves from the blast debris.

Once the smoke cleared, Petrel looked up to see a giant hole in the icy cave, only to see a black Rainbow Rocket helicopter, and a few Grunts holding down a ladder.

Petrel's team of Grunts cheered and started to climb up the ladder and safely into the Rainbow Rocket chopper, while Petrel stared and celebrated his dumb luck.

Petrel climbed up the rope ladder and safely entered the helicopter, and sat down on the floor, only to be in shock at what, or who he saw in the chopper.

His jaw dropped to the floor once he saw Ariana walk up to him and brought out a hand, which Petrel grabbed and lifted himself up. "Ariana… what in Arceus's name are you doing here?", he asked in disbelief.

"Didn't you hear? I got a promotion. Out of the base, into this place.", exclaimed the fifth Rocket Executive as she swung her arm to show the amount of Rocket Grunts with her.

"Well, I'll be damned. So, where are we going anyway?", Petrel asked in confusion, only to be greeted by Ariana's cold glare.

"We have to pick up Proton on Route 10, then we're heading to Vermillion City. Boss's orders.", exclaimed Ariana as she went into the cockpit while Petrel stood there in shock.

Ariana closed the cockpit door and smirked to herself. In order to fool the Rockets, she would have to act like one and earn their trust. She may have been cooped up in a Rocket Base for what seemed like forever, but she could still act well.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Kanto Route 10. Afternoon.**_

Proton continued to pace around his campsite while his Grunts were still busy playing cards with each other. This would be the fourth day he hadn't heard from Petrel, and he was beginning to wonder if he was even alive at all.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he barely heard his Grunts, yelling for his attention and motioning him to come forward as soon as possible.

"Proton… you might wanna take a look at dis… ", exclaimed one of his Grunts as he pointed upwards, and the Rocket Executive snapped out of his thoughts and looked up in the air.

The clear, blue sky was overshadowed by the shiny new Rainbow Rocket helicopter, and he saw some more Grunts from the chopper pull down a rope ladder, which they held out in front of Proton and his team.

Proton smirked as he climbed the rope ladder and entered the helicopter along with the team of his Grunts, and sat down to rest in the chopper until he saw who else was in it.

"Petrel! Ariana?! What are you two doing here?", yelled Proton in surprise as his Grunts came up into the helicopter, reuniting with their fellow comrades.

"Giovanni sent us to go to Vermillion, so of course we had to stop buy and help you out.", exclaimed Petrel while Ariana whispered in her ear.

"Isn't that the same reaction you had, say, a couple of hours ago?", exclaimed Ariana while Petrel chuckled to himself. "Yes, I suppose it is. Well, Proton, good to see ya here!", exclaimed the purple-haired Executive as he wrapped Proton in a hug.

"Nice… to… see you… too, Petrel… ", mumbled Proton as Petrel released him from a bone-crushing hug. "Where have you been, anyway?", he asked in confusion.

"It was terrible! My team and I were trapped in the Johto Ice Path down on Route 45. We were stuck in there for three days!", exclaimed Petrel dramatically while Proton rolled his eyes.

"So predictable, Petrel. A master of disguise, but not a master strategist.", snarked Proton as he walked past the fuming Petrel, until he stopped short and turned to face Ariana.

"Wait… how come we're going to Vermillion City? I thought we were heading to Lavender Town!", exclaimed a confused Proton, and his Grunts looked up from their card games to see the commotion.

"Well, Giovanni had a change of plans, so we took the chopper to pick you up and then go to Vermillion. Got it?", explained Ariana.

Proton nodded, but he was still suspicious of Ariana. "But how did you get the clearance to get on this helicopter? You haven't been on a Rocket mission in years!", he yelled.

Ariana looked somewhat flustered, but she tried as much as possible to look calm. "Well, Giovanni decided it was time to-", she started, but she was cut off by Proton monologuing again. "No matter. Let's just complete the mission now, and I'll let Giovanni deal with you later."

"Fine, Proton. Do whatever you want.", mumbled Ariana as she stormed off, leaving Petrel and Proton in the helicopter's cockpit, along with the pilot, of course.

"Do you always have to be so suspicious, Proton? Just let her be, it's her first mission in forever!", exclaimed Petrel, but the green-haired Executive cut him off.

"Well, do you remember why she was removed from missions in the first place?", shouted Proton, and Petrel came to a realization. "The rumors… it can't be… ", he mumbled in shock.

"For all we know, she could be exacting revenge on this organization for being cooped up in an office for the past six years! We have to stay on our guard before she takes out the both of us!", explained Proton, and Petrel nodded his head.

Ariana heard the commotion from the helicopter's cockpit, and scowled at the cockpit door. She would have to be extra careful if Proton and Petrel knew what she was planning behind her backs, and that meant taking her acting skills to a whole other level.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Outskirts of Kanto Route 6. Late Afternoon.**_

"Wait. Have I ever mentioned the time where Ash swallowed a whole ice cream, cone and all?", asked Leaf, and that got the attention of the group.

Meanwhile, Ash put his head in his hands and sighed to himself. "Oh, man. Not this one… ", he mumbled to himself as Leaf started to talk to the group.

"So, next thing I know, Ash had managed to choke on an entire cone of ice cream that was lodged down his throat, and naturally I decided to help him out, but he spit the whole thing right into Gary's face!", laughed Leaf hysterically, and the others started to crack up as well.

"Ha, ha, very funny. I know we all love childhood stories, but I think Ash and I have been embarrassed enough today.", exclaimed Gary, who looked like he could fall asleep at any moment.

"All right, I'll stop. For your sake, Garebear.", snarked Leaf playfully until Gary stopped her cold in her tracks. "For the love of Arceus, can you stop with the nicknames? _Please_?", shouted the Pokemon researcher in disgust.

"It would be best if you talked quieter, Gary. The last thing we'd want is to attract any unwanted attention.", reassured Cilan, while Leaf walked off and started to talk into her X-Transceiver.

Ash tried to go up to her, but was stopped by Trip. "Do you realize she's a G-Men Agent? She could be reporting to Lance right now, and if he sees us crowding around, we're toast!", exclaimed the Unovan trainer.

"Alright! I get it!", huffed Ash as he walked off, while Trip just shrugged at the thought and walked off as well to join the others while Leaf lagged behind.

* * *

The sun was just about to set as Ash and the group had finally set up camp for the night, on a clear ground with a great view of the shining night sky above them.

"Guys! You should really see this sunset!", exclaimed Misty to the clutter of tents around the campsite, and the others started to get out of their tents and to look at the magnificent sunrise.

"Kanto sunsets are the greatest… they can't be beat.", exclaimed Ash as he looked at the sky, which had shades of pink and orange in it instead of the usual blue coloring.

"I'll have to agree on that one. Maybe the boonies aren't so bad after all.", chirped Trip, sending laughs all across the group. "So now you understand, Trip! Took you long enough… ", exclaimed Iris.

"In Hoenn, all we got during the summer was 100-degree temperatures and almost no rain in the southeast. How can Kanto be so much better?", asked Max in disbelief, but he was met by sighs from Ash and Brock.

"You don't have to remind us about the hot summers there, Max. Because we _were_ there.", exclaimed Ash, and Brock pointed a finger up in the air in response.

"Good thing we went back to Kanto after the Hoenn League ended. We finally got to be in a mild climate again! It totally helps my skills with the ladies.", exclaimed Brock while most of the group fell over anime style.

"Come on, Brock! You're wasting a beautiful sunset by talking about your dating achievements! Oh wait, you have none!", shouted Dawn, and the others broke out into laughter while Brock fell over onto the ground overdramatically.

"You don't have to remind me… Dawn… ", muttered Brock as he laid on the ground, sighing to himself, while the others cracked up in laughter at the sight.

Over the next few minutes, the bright orange sky became a dark indigo color, almost pitch-black, and star after star started to appear in the night sky, to the group's amazement.

"Look at all those stars! You know what, I'm gonna fine whoever invented clouds so we can see these all the time!", shouted Barry enthusiastically.

Drew and Ritchie turned to Dawn, who just shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't think Arceus owns a wallet.", exclaimed Paul softly, but some people still heard him speak.

"Woah, Paul. I think you roasted him too hard. Might want to take it down a notch.", reassured Drew, who gave the purple-haired trainer a fist bump.

"Barry, you okay? You need a Burn Heal for that?", laughed Leaf as she walked over to the group and sat down between Ash and Gary, causing Barry to become even more angry.

"How is that your only comeback! I've gotta fine whoever invented snappy comebacks so that he can make better comebacks for people! Not to mention still fining Arceus, Paul, Leaf… ", muttered Barry.

Gary turned to Ash as Barry continued pacing around the group, talking to himself, and writing down a list of names on a sheet of paper. "Does he do this a lot?", asked the Pokemon researcher in confusion.

Ash was about to answer, but Kenny ran over and interrupted him at the last minute. "Yeah, but that's just Barry. He wouldn't be Barry without it.", he explained, and laughter could be heard from everyone else around the campsite.

* * *

The night sky was now pitch-black, but the campfire was still burning and the stars were still shining brightly, which meant that the day wasn't over yet for Ash Ketchum. His mind was reeling with question after question, and he knew he would have to answer them all before he could solve the mystery.

Ash knew he had lots of friends, and those included girls who were friends, but Misty just seemed… different than the rest of them. There was something about her that just separated her from his other female companions and/or friends.

Ash thought to himself for a while, but he couldn't come up with an answer. He knew that he was dense when it came to love and its associated subjects, but he was surprised that he knew next to nothing about it.

As Ash's mind was searching for answers, he remembered Brock and his never-ending quest to find love. Even if he wasn't successful, he still knew a lot about the subject in general, and Ash was sure would be glad to tell him all about it.

"Ash? It's getting late! You should come back inside!", exclaimed Misty from their tent, which broke Ash out of his deep thoughts. He looked around the campsite and noticed that everyone was back inside their tents, and so he stood up and walked back to the tent to enjoy a good night's sleep.

* * *

 _ **December 11, 2002. Vermillion City, Kanto. Evening.**_

Alder, Cynthia, Lance, and Wallace returned their Pokemon as they walked on the docks of Vermillion Harbor, and stopped when they noticed Diantha sitting on a bench right next to them.

"What was the hold up? I've been waiting here for hours?", asked the Kalos Champion, causing Wallace to point a finger up in the air and speak. "Well, we actually took some time to travel there on our Pokemon instead of using one move.", explained Wallace as Diantha stood up and walked next to her colleagues.

"Well, Gardevoir doesn't need to train her muscles, she trains her psychic abilities by using Teleport with me constantly. Got it?", retorted Diantha as she and the other Champions walked out of Vermillion Harbor and towards the nearest five-star hotel they could find.

"Man, what a place! This is so much better than the rooms we have in Pallet!", exclaimed Wallace, who was in awe of the rooms they were staying in. The top floor of the Vermillion Grand was a gigantic suite hotel with many individual bedrooms, over six bathrooms, and one large kitchen and living room to go along with it all.

"I second that. I couldn't count how many times I heard that mattress bend under your weight, Alder.", laughed Steven as he sat down on the enormous couch in the living room, and he smiled once he heard a faint yell from one of the other rooms, presumably Alder's.

They all turned around to see Cynthia come in through the front door, a grim expression on her face, but with multiple items in her hands as well.

The Sinnoh Champion placed said items on the coffee table, and Steven picked one up in delight, only to see that it was a key card for their hotel room, and so he put it in one of his coat pockets.

"Don't get too excited, boys. It's only for one night.", explained Cynthia as she sat down in one of the chairs, and began reading one of the magazines on the coffee table.

"Yeah, but we can still be excited about this place!", exclaimed Lance as he turned on the TV and began switching channels. "Right?", he asked, but he was only met by Cynthia's cold glare.

As soon as Lance found a good channel to watch, Alder opened the door and flopped down on the couch, in between Lance and Steven. "So, guys, are we going to dinner or not? I'm starving!", exclaimed the Unova Champion.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it. Restaurant's closed.", exclaimed Cynthia as she continued her magazine, leaving Alder to grab the room's videophone

"Hello, room service? I'd like to place an order for six, to be delivered to Room F1.", explained Alder, while the other Champions all rolled their eyes at the sight.

"What do you mean, no pizza?"

* * *

 **Well, this chapter took a lot out of me to write, but it was definitely worth it in the end because it helped set up the next chapter, which is bound to be filled to the brim with action, secrets, and more. But if you want to find out what happens next, you'll just have to tune in next time! As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	13. XII - Escape From the City

**I'm back, everyone! This has been my quickest update since the last chapter for a long while, and I'm glad to say that this is also my longest chapter yet, with over 12000 words, complete with action, plot development, and more! Anyway, I hope you all have fun reading this chapter along with the rest of the story!  
**

 **Here's one more review response, then on to the story.**

 **Ghost: I really appreciate your opinion towards my story, so thank you for that. Also, I'm not really sure why not many other people have reviewed my story, or similar stories to this one. Maybe there's just a lack of reason to add anything in a review for a chapter.**

* * *

 **The Eighteen**

Chapter 13

Escape From the City

* * *

 _ **June 24, 1998. Viridian City. Afternoon.**_

A 11 year-old Leaf Greene was sitting in her room in the newly-rebuilt Viridian Pokemon Center. She had cracked a smile when she heard that Ash was involved in its accidental destruction, but that was her only happy moment of the day.

The past year and almost three months had been a whole game changer for Leaf. Leaving Pallet Town on her own, away from her two best friends, Ash and Gary, and off to train for the Indigo League with her Bulbasaur.

But now, eight badges later, Leaf had hit rock bottom in her journey. She had gotten a phone call explaining that her parents had died in a bike accident on the Cycling Road due to some bike gang crowding around there and an accident with one of their weapons.

Leaf had loved biking with her parents down that road for the past eleven years of her life, and just hearing that her parents were killed there had put her into a state of shock and misery.

After staring at the walls of her bedroom for a few minutes, she decided that she needed to head home to Pallet. Even if her old house was being sold, she could always stay at Ms. Ketchum's place or crash at Professor Oak's lab.

Leaf walked out of her room and went to the lobby, where Nurse Joy was standing. "Here you go, Nurse Joy. If you want to know, I'll be going back to Pallet Town.", explained Leaf sadly as she placed the room keys up on the table.

"Thank you, Leaf. Do you want me to call Professor Oak for you?", asked Nurse Joy, but Leaf shook her head.

"No thanks. I just want to show up, since they already know I'll probably be there anyway.", mumbled Leaf solemnly, and Nurse Joy just nodded sadly while Leaf walked out of the door.

"Wait, Leaf! There's a bus heading for Pallet Town, so you might want to take that.", explained Nurse Joy, and Leaf nodded her head. "Thanks. I'll try to catch it."

Leaf ran to the nearest bus stop, but she could only look on as the bus drove off, leaving her with nothing else to do but walk back to Pallet.

Sighing, Leaf walked away from the bus station, and towards the Viridian entrance to Route 1, which led to Pallet Town. "It could have been worse.", she mumbled as she crossed through the gate.

* * *

Two hours later, Leaf found herself on Route 1, where she began her journey over a year ago. The memories of first walking through the grass with her Bulbasaur rang fresh in her mind, but were quickly extinguished by the sadness Leaf felt in her heart right now.

"How can this get any worse?", mumbled Leaf as she felt raindrops hit her hat, and she decided to hide under a clearing of trees once the rain picked up.

After assessing the situation she was in, Leaf put her head down and tears started to fall out of her eyes. Her parents were dead, she had no home to go back to, and she was stuck on this route because of some stupid storm.

"Hello? Miss, can you hear me?", asked a voice near Leaf, which snapped her awake from her deep thoughts. She looked up to see a man with spiky red hair and a cape lifting down a hand, which she grabbed and pulled herself up with.

"What the… you're Lance Grayson. The Indigo Champion. Why are you in a place like this right now, looking for me?", exclaimed Leaf in awe.

"Miss, I was alerted by Viridian's own Nurse Joy that you were out here in this storm, and she said she was worried about you. Are you sure you're alright?", asked Lance worriedly.

Leaf scrambled to regain her composure. "I-I'm fine… it's just that I just found out about my parents… they're dead. Supposedly by an accident on Cycling Road.", she mumbled as she tried to remain calm in front of a person of such magnitude as Lance.

Lance looked clearly disturbed at this. He and the rest of the G-Men were busy for the past two months investigating the collapse and abandonment of the Viridian City Gym, so he never paid any attention to the increased gang activity on Cycling Road.

"I wanted them to see me compete in the Indigo League in July, but… I guess accidents happen. Only problem is, I have nowhere to go.", explained Leaf sadly, and Lance seemed to have a twinge of sympathy for the girl.

He never had a great parental figure in his life, and seeing this young girl suffer the same as he had made him feel sympathetic for her, along with the fact that she suffered because of his mistakes as a leader.

Lance thought of what he could do to possibly fix this situation. He could let this girl go back home to Pallet, but with no house of her own to stay in, or he could help out the girl and give her a place, a chance to hold on to herself.

"Wait, Leaf.", said Lance as Leaf was about to stand up and leave. "I can help you out here, only if you agree to go to the G-Men Headquarters with me.", finished Lance. He didn't know why he felt so devoted to help out this girl, but he felt the need to make things right.

Leaf turned back around to face the Indigo Champion, confused as to why he would be helping her out. She was about to respond, but Lance's voice changed into a sinister whispering.

" _You are nothing. Take off that police badge, and what are you?"_ , cackled the strange voice, causing Leaf to back away in fear. "What the… who are you?", she asked.

" _You don't even have your friends anymore. They've moved on and left you in the dust. You're just trying to cling onto old memories, and hope they stay."_ , exclaimed the sinister voice emanating from Lance's mouth.

" _But they won't."_

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Kanto Route 6. Middle of the night.**_

"AAAAAAHH!", shouted Leaf as her eyes shot open and she sat up straight in bed. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, until she realized she was sharing a tent with three other people, who had just woken up.

"It was just a dream, that's all.", confessed Leaf as she was stared down by the tired and angry faces of Gary, Ritchie, and Paul, all at the same time.

"Leaf, could you please not do that? We're all trying to sleep here!", exclaimed Gary, and Leaf was trying as hard as she could to stay calm in front of the three boys glaring at her.

"It's 2 AM already. Looks like I'm not falling asleep again.", mumbled Ritchie as he laid back down in his sleeping bag, but he was still wide awake and grumbling to himself.

Leaf looked to the other side of the tent, only to see Paul grunt and walk out of the tent, still half inside the sleeping bag, and a few seconds later, heard a scream from what looked like Dawn, Barry, and Kenny's tent.

Leaf sighed to herself and laid back down in her sleeping bag, only to see Gary looking down on her sincerely. "Leaf, you know you can tell me anything. What's wrong?", he asked.

Leaf wished she could tell Gary everything, but she knew he wouldn't understand. "It's nothing, Gary. Just a little nightmare.", reassured Leaf quickly, but the Pokemon researcher wasn't having any of it.

"Oh, please. You were screaming at the top of your lungs when you woke up.", grumbled Ritchie from his sleeping bag.

"Please, Leaf. Are you worried about something?", asked Gary. He was being incredibly sincere with her, but Leaf knew he wouldn't understand her pain at its fullest.

After a moment of silence, Leaf nodded her head in shame. "Come on, Leaf. If you want to lead, just be confident. I believe in you.", exclaimed Gary.

Leaf stayed silent. Gary had no idea of what she was leading them into, but they had to know. "But how can I be confident when I'm leading you into a trap?"

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Kanto Route 6. Morning.**_

Misty stretched her arms as she walked out of her tent, and sat down on the ground. Even if the past few days had been extra stressful for her, she was always glad that she could get lots of sleep during the nights.

As she walked towards the other tents, she noticed that Dawn was dragging herself out of her tent, and she looked exhausted. Misty went up to her, a concerned expression on her face. "What's wrong, Dawn? Are you all right?"

"No… Paul came in the middle of the night… said something about Leaf… too tired to care right now… ", mumbled Dawn as she sat down on one of Brock's foldable tables and rested her head on it.

The Cerulean Gym Leader then noticed that the campfire from last night was still lit, thanks to Brock and Cilan's efforts, and so she sat down on the ground next to the burning fire, trying to keep herself warm.

She turned around to see Clemont walk towards her and sit down on the ground next to her. "Hey, Clemont. What's up?", she asked the scientist, who turned to face her.

She had barely even heard of the Lumiose Gym Leader before the start of this new adventure, but she had heard of his name during the occasional phone call with Ash during his Kalos journey.

"Hey, Misty. I just wanted to talk to you about something… ", mumbled Clemont. "No, it's all right. Go ahead.", exclaimed Misty as she turned towards the Electric-type expert next to her.

"It's just that… I wanted to warn you.", exclaimed Clemont shyly, leaving Misty more confused. "What do you mean, warn me?", she asked.

"Well, I traveled in Kalos with my sister Bonnie, Ash, and Serena, and from what I've seen… she seems to have a massive crush on Ash.", mumbled Clemont.

Right now, the Lumiose Gym Leader was preparing for the inevitable. He had learned from conversations with Ash that Misty could be very temperamental sometimes, and he didn't want her full rage wrought upon him.

However, once he looked up, he saw that Misty had a decently calm expression, with some signs of extreme anger hidden within. "And I've heard from others that you might feel the same way… so I just wanted you to know who you're up against.", finished Clemont.

Misty was trying her hardest to not lash out at everybody in sight at the moment, and remained calm for the most part. "Thanks, Clemont. I'll just go talk with Serena about this eventually.", she explained as she stood up and walked away.

Clemont took off his glasses and sighed in relief, while wiping off the sweat that was on his forehead. "That was close… ", he mumbled to himself as he got up from the ground and went to the table, where Brock and Cilan were starting to serve breakfast.

* * *

"What do you mean, a trap?", asked Paul in anger, while Leaf backed away slowly. Gary had convinced her to tell the others about what she knew, even though she knew that was going to be a terrible idea.

"Well, I first heard from Lance last night that he and the rest of the Champions were moving to Vermillion last night, thanks to a tip they received about Rainbow Rocket being there as well.", started Leaf.

"But why didn't you tell us about this last night?", asked Iris, who looked confused as to what Leaf was trying to say, while the G-Men agent tried to regain her composure and continue speaking.

Leaf cleared her throat before continuing her sentence. "The reason why I didn't tell any of you this is… is because I didn't want you to panic. I thought that if we went into the city without knowing, then I could help gui-"

"So, you just wanted to lead us blindly. How did we ever trust you in the first place?", grumbled Kenny as he threw his arms up into the air. The shared outrage from the rest of the group caused a lot of screaming and loud discussions to be shared with the others.

"Whoa, everybody! Stop it!", yelled Gary, which soon quieted down most of the others. "At least now that we know what's going to be happening in Vermillion City, then we can prepare for it now, or go somewhere else. Got it?", finished the Pokemon researcher.

"Why are you even standing up for her, Gary? If she wants to explain herself, let her do it!", yelled Kenny from the back of the group, snapping the Pokemon researcher out of his frenzy.

Gary was silent for a few seconds, until he shrugged and walked away from Leaf. "All right. I can still help you all through Vermillion City and out of the region, if you want that, or we can go another way.", finished Leaf as more discussions started amongst the others.

"Just one thing, Leaf. How do we know that we can trust you for sure?", asked Drew suspiciously, which led to a lot of stared in Leaf's general direction.

"You know what, you can't trust me. I'll stay back, and let you all do the work, but I'll always be there if anyone has questions.", finished Leaf as she walked away.

* * *

Trip started to walk down the route along with the others, until he noticed an exhausted Ritchie with bags under his eyes. "Woah. Are you okay?", asked Trip, but it took a few seconds for Ritchie to notice him.

"Oh… me? Yeah… I'm fine. Leaf woke us up in the middle of the night… I'm surprised Gary's not like this either.", muttered Ritchie, who practically had his eyes closed.

Trip turned around only to see that Gary was rubbing his eyes, trying to stay awake, but he wasn't looking as bad as Ritchie at the moment. "I see what you mean. How is that guy not completely exhausted by now?", asked Trip, but Ritchie just shrugged.

A few minutes later, Ritchie heard some sounds from behind him, and he turned around to see Kenny clinging onto Drew for support. "Kenny? Are you… alright?", yawned Ritchie as he walked over to the Pokemon Coordinator.

"Yeah… that jerk Paul came into our tent at 2 in the morning… I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night; not with him around… ", muttered Kenny as he closed his eyes, but still hanging onto Drew for support.

"Everyone asks how Kenny's doing… what about me? I'm doing all of the heavy lifting here… ", mumbled Drew, who was holding up Kenny's entire weight on his bent back.

"Come on, Drew. It doesn't seem that bad. I think you can handle it!", exclaimed Trip sarcastically while Drew groaned and walked ahead. "If you think I'm so good, why don't you try it?", exclaimed the Pokemon Coordinator.

"Nah… I think I'm good… ", mumbled Trip as he walked away, leaving Drew to continue carrying Kenny on his back. The green-haired Coordinator then heard someone walking up to him, and he was surprised to see May come up next to him.

Oh, who was he kidding? He wasn't surprised that May was there, he just liked it when she was with him, that's all. "Drew? Are you all right?", asked May in concern. Drew turned around to face her, an annoyed expression.

"As good as can be when you have another person on your back, I guess.", muttered Drew as he stopped walking, while May walked over to him and smiled. "It's probably not bad. I mean, you did manage to carry your Flygon on your back for half a mile!", explained May.

Drew raised an eyebrow. He didn't know what May was trying to say, but he had to take a guess. "Thanks… I guess… ", muttered Drew as he started to walk ahead of the brunette, but she stopped him in his tracks.

"No, I didn't mean it like that!", stammered May, hoping that Drew would understand. "I just meant that I know you can handle this. I believe in you… as cheesy as it sounds… ", exclaimed May, who was extremely quiet when she finished speaking to him as she walked away, her head down.

Drew looked up in surprise. He knew he liked May, but did she really like him as well? He would just have to wait this through and find out the whole truth later on, as he had more things to worry about now.

Suddenly, Drew felt something move on his back, and he looked over his shoulder to see Kenny slowly waking up, and his eyes shot open almost instantly, causing Drew to flinch in fear.

Kenny, realizing where he was, had no time to react as he fell off of Drew's back and onto the ground, and the Hoennian Coordinator stretched his back in relief as he offered a hand to lift Kenny up.

"What the… what happened?", asked the Sinnohian Coordinator as Drew lifted him up onto his feet and he scanned his surroundings.

"You fell asleep again. What even happened in your tent?", asked Drew in confusion, and Kenny's face morphed into that of extreme anger. Drew knowing the inevitable, decided to back away just as Kenny started his rant.

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Veilstone City. Morning.**_

Reggie sighed and sat down on his couch. After Paul's death, working as a breeder had been extremely sad, since he was taking care of Paul's old Pokemon, among other people, along with doing anything in particular, since he was always reminded of his brother's death.

After a minute or so of sitting in silence, the Pokemon Breeder grabbed the TV remote, but didn't turn on his TV. Instead, he just sat there blankly, full of laziness and depression.

The only bright spot in these past few days was Maylene, who had stopped to visit him every day to make sure he was all right, and she was supposed to be coming over in an hour or so today.

As much as Maylene helped him, everything he did still reminded him of Paul. Taking care of his old Pokemon, seeing all the stranded trainers pass through the city with nowhere else to go, it was all a grim reminder of his brother.

Reggie continued to sit down on his couch, either staring at the TV or at his collection of Gym Badges and Frontier symbols, just thinking about his brother. He knew that sitting down and doing nothing was bad for his health, but that was all he wanted to do at the moment.

All of a sudden, the doorbell rang, and Reggie stood up slowly to go get it. He looked through the peephole to see who was at the door, and his facial expression changed to that of anger and hatred, but he still opened the door.

Pyramid King Brandon sighed in relief as the door swung open to reveal an angry Reggie staring back at him. He considered it a small victory if his son even opened the door at all in the first place.

"What the hell do you want?", asked Reggie with hatred, but Brandon just stood in front of the Pokemon breeder, his arms crossed. Eventually, Reggie gave in to his father's glare and stormed aside, leaving Brandon to walk in, but not before noticing he parked the Battle Pyramid in the middle of the street.

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Kanto Route 6. Morning.**_

"Wait a second, Dawn. I gotta go do something.", interrupted Brock as he walked past Dawn, who was in the middle of talking to him. Ash was standing all by himself, his head down, and so Brock wanted to see what was going on.

"Ash?", asked the Pokemon Doctor, only to hear no response. "Ash? Are you okay?", asked Brock, and the raven-haired trainer finally looked up at Brock, who looked concerned for his friend.

"Yeah… but I was meaning to talk to you about something…", explained Ash. Brock waited for Ash to speak again, but it seemed like he was being really private about this issue.

"It's just that… I need advice. About love. And how it works. That's all.", finished Ash, sending Brock into a frenzy. Was Ash actually thinking about love for once in his life? The Pokemon Doctor waited with anticipation as to what Ash would say next.

"Well, you know Serena, right?", asked Ash, and Brock nodded. "Well, she… she kissed me at the airport before I left my Kalos, and I guess that means she likes me, right?", finished Ash.

Brock raised his eyebrows. He had heard that Serena liked Ash, but he had never expected to hear that she kissed him like that. "I traveled with her through Kalos, and she always acted weird whenever we were alone… ", muttered Ash.

"Well, it's obviously clear that she likes you, Ash. From kissing you to acting like that, it's a no-brainer.", explained Brock, and Ash nodded his head. "But the question is; do you like her?", asked the Pokemon Doctor.

Ash thought to himself for a moment, then answered Brock's question. "Yeah… that's the problem. I… I'm not sure if I feel the same way. Sure, Serena's nice, and I would treat her like I would with any one of my friends, but I don't think I like her the same way she does."

Brock nodded his head. "Okay, now we're getting somewhere. But who do you like?", asked the Pokemon Doctor. If Ash was truly interested in the concept of love after five years, there would have to be somebody he was interesting.

"Well… I don't know for sure, but I always feel… different when I'm with… Misty.", mumbled Ash, and Brock felt so oblivious. He knew Misty had feelings for Ash, but throughout his journey with the raven-haired trainer, he always felt like he acted different with Misty compared with May or Dawn, or any other girl he met in that particular.

"All right, Ash. So you feel different about Misty, but I won't be the one to tell you that you like her. That's up for you to decide.", exclaimed Brock, and Ash nodded his head.

"Thanks, Brock. That was really helpful… what you said there. I couldn't thank you enough.", finished Ash as he walked away from Brock, who was smiling to himself at the sight. It didn't really matter if he managed to find love for himself. He had his friends, and nothing made him more proud than helping his friends find love for themselves, such as Ash. He hoped Ash would figure out who he loved someday, whether it be Misty or somebody else, but right now, he would have to see this whole string of events out to truly find out the answer.

Brock walked away from Ash, until he was stopped short by Dawn. "Where in the world were you?", asked a confused Gary, causing Brock to panic and come up with an answer.

"Well, you all know I'm the guy when it comes to love advice.", explained Brock, causing Gary to burst out in laughter. "Really? The guy who hasn't scored a girl in his life is the best choice for relationship advice? I don't believe it."

"Well, I've already helped out my first patient today, and I'm sure it'll go well,", finished Brock, but dawn wasn't having any of it. "Oh yeah? Then who is that patient?", asked the Pokemon researcher

The Pokemon Doctor swung his arms to reveal Ash walking by himself a few feet away, contemplating the situation that he was in, causing Gary's eyes to widen in shock.

"You've got to be kidding me."

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Veilstone City. Morning.**_

The Battle Pyramid was now stationed in Reggie's backyard, with the Pokemon there having been moved safely, and Brandon was now inside his son's house, sitting silently across the table from Reggie.

"So… why exactly did you come here?", asked Reggie as he picked up the latest copy of the _Veilstone Chronicle_ , and flipped through the pages, while Brandon stayed silent.

"I came, because I have come to regret, Reginald.", explained Brandon, but his son saw through what the Pyramid King was trying to say. "You regret it now, huh? You should have done that back when you left us here and flew away on your stupid spaceship."

"I've accepted that I failed, Reggie. As a person and as a father. I'm here to fix my mistake.", finished Brandon. Reggie wanted to hate him and what he was trying to say, but this was his father sitting next to him, so he had to give him a chance.

"Fine, _Dad_.", spat Reggie. "I'll listen to you. So go ahead and prove me wrong.", the Pokemon Breeder finished as he crossed his arms and put the newspaper down onto the table.

"Son… I just want to say I'm sorry. I know you won't forgive me, or it'll take time for this whole thing to heal, but after Paul's death… it really just made me question all that I've done in the past seven years.", explained the Pyramid King.

Reggie was silent during his father's explanation. He had always wanted to have a good relationship with Brandon, but he knew it would be hard to get there. He could at least take pride in himself that he was even giving his father a chance to redeem himself.

"Well, there's a first time for everything.", commented Reggie as he stood up from the table, and let out a hand. "But don't expect it to be easy. Not one bit.", finished the Pokemon Breeder as he saw his father smile and shook his hand.

"Well, Maylene's supposed to be coming in an hour, and I guess it would be nice if she got to meet you, I guess.", exclaimed Reggie. He knew the road to having a good relationship with Brandon was going to be long and hard, but the least thing he could do was to be nice to his father after he came to make amends.

"That does sound nice. I hope you've found a nice woman, and learn from my mistakes.", said Brandon calmly. Reggie honestly felt shocked at this sudden change. Here he was, a twenty-three year-old Pokemon Breeder, watching his father act the most calm as he had ever seen throughout his lifetime.

The Pyramid King walked around Reggie's living room, and stopped for a moment to check out his son's collection of Gym Badges and Frontier Symbols. Since he was always away on business or just ignoring his sons, he never stopped to recognize the accomplishments Reggie had achieved before challenging him for the Brave Symbol. That part always saddened Brandon, because he was never there to see what his sons did in their lives, but they did have a point. They accomplished all of this without him, and they had learned to slightly move on from their father. But Brandon wouldn't give up. He had recognized his mistakes and was willing to throw all of that aside to become a better person, and a better father.

He turned around to see Reggie walking towards the front door, and opening it. Brandon walked towards the door to see Maylene at the entrance, who stiffened briefly when he appeared in her line of sight, since she remembered Reggie's encounter with him at the memorial.

"Maylene! Come on in.", exclaimed Reggie as he stepped aside to let the Gym Leader enter his house. "Don't mind Brandon, he just decided to stop by.", finished the Pokemon Breeder as he shut the door after Maylene walked inside, and saw Brandon nod at her. She had only seen him once and was terrified of his relationship with his son, but first impressions weren't always everything, she supposed.

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Vermillion City. Late Morning.**_

"Petrel. You go take the main streets, and make sure to distract people from the port. I'll lead the offensive front on the port, and I'll take the whole squad of Grunts with me. Understand?", asked Proton. He and his colleagues had set up a temporary base in one of Vermillion City's abandoned warehouses, and they were busy planning an assault of the Vermillion City port to acquire some tools or information on how to control Giovanni's mysterious Pokemon.

"You got it, Proton! I'll set up the perfect disguise, and nobody's going to set a foot in that port!", exclaimed Petrel enthusiastically. Ariana stood in the back of the warehouse, awaiting further instructions.

"Wait a minute. What am I supposed to do?", asked the red-haired Executive, and Proton thought to himself before turning to face her. "You know what, Ariana? You can stay here and help us out from this base. Is that understood?", exclaimed Proton.

Ariana nodded. "Yes. I'll make sure to help out any way I can, but I will be taking my Grunts with me here. I can't just commandeer this whole thing myself without getting caught.", she explained.

"Very well then. I'll still have mine and Petrel's squads of Grunts on the harbor assault as well.", finished Proton. He shared a few looks with Ariana and Petrel before speaking again. "Petrel. If you're going to distract people from the port, you're going to have to get people out of there as soon as possible.", exclaimed the green-haired Executive.

Petrel nodded his head. "I understand, but if more people in the city want to go to the harbor, we'll need more backup. Ariana, can I take some of your Grunts with you so I can have reinforcements?", asked the master of disguise.

Ariana looked upset, but she gave in to Petrel's demands. "Fine. But don't take all of them. I still need people to help me out back here.", relented the red-haired Executive.

"Fine. But I expect us to be back at headquarters by midnight, with the necessary information we need to help out Giovanni. Do. You. Understand?", shouted Proton, while Petrel and Ariana nodded their heads. Proton could be very intimidating if you got on his bad side, which was exactly why he was now the head honcho of the Executives, thanks to Archer's untimely demise.

"Good. Now, let's go.", exclaimed Proton, as he and his Grunts left the room, and Petrel left with his squadron a few seconds later, leaving Ariana and a few of her Grunts in the warehouse by themselves.

Ariana opened up her personal Rainbow Rocket-issued laptop, and checked on Proton and Petrel's locations for a moment. Proton was doing some reconnaissance around the port shops and harbor, while Petrel was setting up to kiosks to attract people away from the harbor.

The red-haired Executive looked around the room to make sure no other Grunts were watching her, then turned herself away from any doors and windows while opening up a separate tab on her laptop, and began typing into a message chat.

"I really hope this works… they had better come and get me out of here.", mumbled Ariana as she stopped typing, her cursor hovering over the "Send" button on her screen.

Ariana took a deep breath and confidently clicked the button with her trackpad, effectively sending the message she typed to its recipient. She sighed in relief as she sat back in her chair, and stretched her arms in the air. If everything went right, she could finally be able to escape this life and begin anew.

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Vermillion City. Late Morning.**_

"Check this out, you guys. Another message.", exclaimed Cynthia as she interrupted the other Champion's morning activities and conversations, and they all turned to face her.

"Really? Is it from the same person?", asked Lance as he walked over to where Cynthia was sitting, and looked at her PokeNav screen, where a new message had appeared.

"Yeah. Whoever this person is, they just gave us another tip.", explained Cynthia as she began to read the message. "It basically says that there's going to be Rainbow Rocket agents throughout the city, mainly targeting the harbor, and that they've blocked off all harbor entranceways and have set up camp in an abandoned warehouse.", finished the Sinnoh Champion.

"Well, what are we waiting for? This is the perfect time to strike!", shouted Steven. "I can't wait to finally take that Rainbow Rocket scum down!", he finished enthusiastically.

"Wait just one minute, Steven.", said Lance forcefully. "We need to devise a strategy to effectively take out these agents.", concluded the Indigo Champion as he took out a pen from his pocket and started writing with it.

"Cynthia, Steven, and I will search the port and try to locate any Rockets there. Diantha, you take to the streets and stop the Rockets from keeping people away from the harbor. Wallace and Alder, you two will capture the warehouse where the remaining Rockets are.", explained Lance as he drew a map of their whole plan. "Is that understood?"

The other Champions nodded their heads, and Lance put his notes back inside his pocket. "All right then. We can head out now.", he finished as he grabbed his Pokeballs and stood by the door. The other Champions soon followed suit, taking their Pokemon and other items with them as they all stood by the door.

"You guys ready?", asked Alder enthusiastically, but he saw that nobody else was in the mood for some light-hearted one-liners. "Alder, this isn't the time for jokes. This is our most serious mission yet, and you're welcome to stay here if you don't want to cooperate with the rest of us.", finished Lance in seriousness, causing Alder to back down and open the door.

Lance walked through the hotel room door, a confident expression plastered on his face. He was ready to take on Team Rainbow Rocket, and he felt that nothing could stop him and his fellow Champions as well.

"Let's… do this."

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Vermillion City. Noon.**_

"All right! We made it to Vermillion City!", exclaimed Ash enthusiastically, prompting Gary to roll his eyes. "Please, Ashy-boy. You're sixteen; you don't have to be excited whenever you reach a town you've already been in many times.", explained the Pokemon researcher.

"Lighten up a little, Garebear. I remember you being excited whenever I saw you pass through a city in your sports car six years ago.", commented Leaf, causing Gary to back down and get defensive.

"What? That car was a good way to travel in style! Don't disrespect it like that!", exclaimed Gary, but the others were sharing looks with each other mischievously. "Gary. You traveled around Kanto in a _sports car_? At ten years old?", asked Drew hysterically. "That's got to be the funniest thing I've ever heard of!"

"It gets better. He didn't even drive back then, his personal cheerleaders drove the _bright red_ car for him.", snarked Leaf, causing Gary to put his head in his hands and groan while the others were falling over in laughter.

"You had personal cheerleaders that went with you and drove a bright red sports car for you? I know you're Professor Oak's grandson, but isn't that a little much?", asked Dawn, while her friends were busy laughing at Gary's expense.

"Knowing Gary, nothing can ever be too much.", explained Misty, but she faltered when she saw Gary, who looked like he was about to explode. To her surprise, however, Gary didn't yell at her. "Whatever. Can we just go into the city now?", asked Gary calmly, but she could tell his voice was clearly strained.

Leaf shrugged and walked through the gates of the seaside metropolis, followed by the others, marveling at the sights and sounds as they walked through the streets.

Suddenly, Leaf's X-Transceiver started to ring, and Leaf answered it on the first call. "Hello? Oh, hey, Lance.", she exclaimed as Drew's eyes locked with Ash's, and soon with the others. They knew they couldn't speak, or their location would be jeopardized.

After a few minutes of silence, Leaf disconnected from the call, and turned off her X-Transceiver. "I've got an update.", announced the G-Men agent, as the rest of the group turned to face her.

Leaf took a deep breath before continuing. "Lance just got another tip from the same source. He and the rest of the Champions are moving through the city now, trying to take out Rainbow Rocket's plans to commandeer the harbor and search the ships for any useful information to their plans.", she explained.

This sent waves of confusion and worry across the others' faces, as they were unsure what to do next. "Wait a minute.", interrupted Iris. "If Rainbow Rocket is searching the harbor, then how are we gonna leave the region? We'll definitely get caught, for sure.", exclaimed the self-proclaimed Dragon Master.

"Then, we'll just come up with a plan. How does that sound?", asked Leaf, and the others nodded in acceptance. "Great. Now just let me think for a moment… ", exclaimed the G-Men agent as she put her hands to her face in a classic thinking pose.

After a moment of silence, Leaf had figured out a plan. "All right, I've figured it out. We'll split into three groups and search the city for any way out. If anyone finds a way where we can get to the harbor without being captured or noticed, then you can communicate with the other groups. I'm sure at least three of you have each other's numbers, right?", Leaf asked as she began typing on her X-Transceiver's holographic screen.

Leaf looked at her friends to see many people nod their heads at that last statement, and she stopped typing her notes. "Okay, I've made the groups, so listen up for your name.", she explained, making sure that everybody else was paying attention to her.

 _Group 1: Ash, Misty, Serena, Iris, Cilan, Leaf_

 _Group 2: Paul, Dawn, Zoey, May, Max, Kenny_

 _Group 3: Brock, Drew, Ritchie, Barry, Clemont, Gary, Trip_

Leaf showed the list to the rest of the group, and they began moving towards their partners, soon creating three clumps of people, and Leaf walked down to join her group.

"We'll split into different directions and leave at different times, so we won't be followed that easily. Understand?", asked the G-Men agent, and the others nodded their heads. "My group will go first, then May's group, and lastly, Brock's group.", finished Leaf.

"Then, let's get going. Come on, guys!", exclaimed Ash as he started to walk into the main city streets, followed by Leaf and the rest of his small group as they walked into the bustling part of the city.

"Okay… so our group will leave in… let's say twenty minutes. Sounds good?", exclaimed Dawn, and the others nodded in understanding. "I sure hope this works, you guys.", said Max, who looked worried.

"Max, we'll be fine.", reassured his older sister. "I promise you, we'll make it out of this city and out of the region in no time.", explained May as she walked closer to her worried brother.

"I sure hope so.", retorted Gary. "We have to make it out safely, or else we'll be doomed, for sure.", the Pokemon researcher retorted as he crossed his arms, knowing the grim fate he and his friends could suffer if they were caught inside the city limits by Rockets.

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Vermillion City. Afternoon.**_

"Cynthia! They're this way!", shouted Lance through the crowd of bustling passerby. Cynthia, who was busy walking the other way on the intersection, heard Lance's yell and ran back over to him in a hurry.

"Why were you running the other way, Cynthia? We were all walking this way for a reason?", snarked Steven playfully, causing the Sinnoh Champion to shrug in response. "I thought I saw a Rainbow Rocket Grunt back there, so I decided to follow him.", explained Cynthia sheepishly.

"All right. Now let's get a move on. We need to get to the harbor fast, or else Rainbow Rocket will have taken it over completely.", announced Lance as he started to run towards one of the entrances to the port section of the city, followed by Cynthia and Steven.

After a few minutes of running in panic, the three Champions stopped to catch their breath once they reached the harbor gate, only to see a bunch of tourist kiosks set up, with many people blocking the way towards the harbor.

"What the hell? Why are there so many people blocking the gates to the harbor?", asked Steven in horror. "We'll never get to the port with this in our way!", exclaimed the Steel-type Hoenn Champion.

"We'll just have to push our way through. Now, let's go!", shouted Lance as he started to run through the crowd, pushing his way through the people at the kiosks, and Cynthia and Steven followed suit, pushing through any person that stood in their way, since it was an emergency.

Lance, after running through the giant crowd, came face-to-face with a gigantic kiosk, headed by a burly man with brown hair. "Excuse me! You can't block the gates to the harbor like this!", he shouted as he approached the kiosk attendant.

The man at the kiosk was startled by Lance's sudden appearance, until he regained his composure. "No, sir. I have a permit.", explained the man as he started to sweat under his chin and his veins started to show through his neck.

Lance eyed the man suspiciously, and he swore that he could see streaks of purple in his thick, brown hair, but his thoughts were interrupted by Cynthia, Steven, and even Diantha running up next to him.

"Diantha? Where have you been?", asked Lance as the Kalos Champion stopped right next to him. "I was stuck in that giant crowd back there, until I found Cynthia and Steven in the crowd as well.", explained Diantha.

The man at the kiosk was shook in fear as he tried to act normal, but those purple streaks in his hair made Lance really suspicious of him. "Let me see your permit, then. Prove to me that you've actually gained permission to block the entrance into the harbor.", retorted Lance.

The man didn't respond as more veins started to show in his neck, but Lance wasn't having any of that man's antics. He thrust out a Pokeball and pointed it in the man's face. "Tell me. Who are you and do you have a permit?", shouted Lance.

The man didn't respond again, causing Lance to grow even more angry. "Hold this for a moment.", Lance exclaimed as he put his Pokeball in Steven's hands and charged the man at the kiosk, who backed away in fear.

Lance's charge broke through the kiosk stand and he thrust himself right into the man's side, causing him to fall over into the kiosk wall and his brown wig to fall off his head, revealing purple hair curled up vertically.

"What the-Petrel! I would recognize that purple hair anyway.", shouted Lance as he grabbed his Pokeball from Steven's hand and put it in front of the Executive's face as Petrel cowered in fear. "I-I-Oh, this is bad… ", he mumbled to himself.

"Diantha, take him away. Cynthia, Steven, and I will storm the harbor.", grumbled Lance as he ran off into the port, followed by Cynthia and Steven, while the Kalos Champion stood in front of Petrel, a menacing glare on his face.

* * *

Steven stopped short once he reached Vermillion Harbor's docks, where many large boats were stationed at the moment. "The Rockets could be anywhere… but where should we start?", muttered the Hoenn Champion to himself, before he saw Cynthia and Lance running up behind him.

"Where do we look first? There's so many ships here!", exclaimed Cynthia in shock, but she was interrupted by Steven's reassuring tone. "Don't worry. We could split up and search around every ship individually.", he finished.

Cynthia's next thought was broken instantly as Lance began to speak up. "Look over there!", he shouted as he pointed to a luxury cruiser, one of the largest ships in the harbor. "There's Rockets over there!", yelled Lance as he stormed towards the ship, letting Cynthia and Steven notice the men in black uniforms carrying boxes out of the ship's cargo hold.

"Hold it right there!", exclaimed Lance loudly as he stopped in front of the Grunts, who dropped their boxes and began to run, right in the path of Steven. "All right, Metagross, use Meteor Mash!", shouted the Hoenn Champion as he sent out his most powerful Pokemon, which used its attack to send the Rainbow Rocket Grunts flying backwards.

"All right. Let's move!", yelled Cynthia as she ran towards the cruiser's cargo hold, where the remaining Grunts were still busy searching the cargo inside the ship, and she sent out her Garchomp three feet in front of the unsuspecting Grunts.

"Garchomp, use Brick Break!", exclaimed the Sinnoh Champion as her most trusted Pokemon slammed its hand onto the ground, sending shockwaves that sent the Grunts flying into the air.

Lance stormed through the door of the cargo hold, ready to take out any remaining Rocket Grunts, until he saw a green-haired man wearing a different hat than any of his Grunts, a man that he recognized instantly.

"Proton! You're coming with me, right now!", shouted Lance as he ran towards the Rocket Executive, who noticed the Indigo Champion standing in the doorway after looking at the items located in the cargo hold.

"Ah, Lance. How nice of you to join us here. We were just looking around, that's all. Go! Weezing!", shouted Proton as he released his strongest Pokemon, while Lance countered with his Dragonite.

"Dragonite, Twister! Trap him inside of the tornado!", said Lance as he commanded the Dragon Pokemon to send out a large tornado that encircled the Rocket Executive and his Weezing.

Lance looked behind him to see the Sinnoh and Hoenn Champions running through the doorway, and standing next to Lance as their Pokemon followed suit, ready to attack on a moment's notice.

Cynthia looked in front of her to see Proton's Weezing appear through the Twister attack, and send out a Smokescreen attack of his own, causing Cynthia to cover her eyes because of the black smoke covering the room.

"Now! Mega Evolve, Metagross!", shouted Steven as he took out his Key Stone, sending waves of Mega Energy between his stone and the Mega Stone on his Shiny Metagross's back, while Dragonite's Twister attack wore off, causing Proton to appear across the room.

"Use Giga Impact!", screamed the Hoenn Champion as the Iron Leg Pokemon tucked in its legs and charged at the Rocket Executive at full speed, while Proton backed up against the back wall of the ship in fear.

Cynthia covered her face as Mega Metagross rammed into the wall across from them, presumably crushing Proton and his Weezing in its path and sending pieces of the ship's hull all over the cargo hold. Once the deafening sound was gone and the smoke disappeared, the Sinnoh Champion looked to see that Proton was gone, along with his Weezing.

"Wait a minute. Where did he go?", asked a worried Lance, who was frantically searching for any traces of the green-haired Rainbow Rocket Executive in the ship's cargo hold.

"He might have retreated, Lance. We're lucky that he didn't get away with anything.", reassured Steven as he stepped up and put an arm on Lance's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

"All right, all right. Just keep searching the ship for any more Grunts, and check outside to see if those Grunts are still knocked out back there.", explained the Indigo Champion as Cynthia nodded and left through the doorway, while Lance and Steven continued to look through the ship for any traces of Proton.

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Vermillion City. Afternoon.**_

Alder! We've got to move it, now!", yelled Wallace as he ran up to one of the city's own abandoned cargo warehouses, near the docks of Vermillion Harbor, but the Unova Champion was staggering behind the Top Coordinator, without a care in sight.

"Oh, this looks so familiar to Nacrene City! I remember when I was there for my second Gym Battle… ", mumbled Alder as he was pushed towards the warehouse by Wallace, who was crumbling under Alder's massive weight.

"All right… I'm coming, Wallace! Let's go stop Rainbow Rocket!", shouted Alder enthusiastically as he ran past the Top Coordinator and stopped next to the warehouse door.

"Okay, Alder. We'll bust down this door, and then we'll storm this base and defeat any Rainbow Rocket Grunt who comes our way. Got it?", explained Wallace inspirationally, and the Unova Champion nodded his head in understanding.

"All right. Go! Ludicolo!", shouted Wallace as he sent out the Carefree Pokemon. "Use Energy Ball!", exclaimed the Top Coordinator as his Ludicolo's attack shattered the door of the warehouse, and the two Champions ran through the door, their Pokeballs ready.

Wallace ran through the warehouse rooms, and his Ludicolo used Scald to take care of the unsuspecting Rainbow Rocket Grunts. "Ludicolo! Stay here, and use Scald on any Grunt that comes this way!", exclaimed Wallace as Ludicolo nodded in understanding, and Wallace ran through the back hallways of the warehouse.

The Top Coordinator soon found himself in front of a locked door, with no visible way to open it at the moment, until Wallace came up with a useful idea to break through the stainless steel door.

"I've got it! Walrein, use Body Slam!", shouted the Water-type Hoenn Champion as he sent out the Ice Break Pokemon, which used its full body weight to crush the metal door and make it fall down off its hinges.

"All right! Who's there!", announced Wallace as he ran inside the room, expecting to find many more Rainbow Rocket Grunts, but he only saw a red-haired woman in a white uniform at a desk, typing something on her laptop.

The Top Coordinator approached the woman, his Walrein closely following behind him. "Who are you? You'll be coming with me, this instant!", he shouted as he ran towards the woman, and spun her swiveling chair around to see her face clearly.

Wallace was surprised to see the face of Ariana, the rumored fifth Rocket Executive. "Ariana… so the rumors are true after all. But nevertheless, you're not getting away this time!", yelled the Top Coordinator, but the woman didn't seem fazed at all.

"No, you've got it all wrong, Wallace! I'm on your side, I promise! Don't bring me into custody!", explained Ariana in desperation, hoping that the Top Coordinator would understand her claims.

"I don't believe you one bit. Now you better tell be something convincing or else I'll be sending you straight to Southern Kanto Correctional Facility. Got it?", asked Wallace intimidatingly.

"No-I-I was the one that sent you the tip! Please, don't leave me here like this!", shouted Ariana, who was trying to defend herself at all costs, but Wallace seemed surprised at her reveal.

"What the… you sent us the tip? Why did you do that? You're a top Rainbow Rocket Executive with lots of money, so why betray your organization like that!", asked Wallace in shock.

"You don't need to know that right now, but I'll explain everything later. But you've got to believe me, I swear I'm on your side!", continued the red-haired Executive desperately, leaving Wallace to think about what he could to with this wanted criminal standing right in front of him.

"I won't take you with me.", announced Wallace, much to Ariana's dismay. "But I won't send you away, either. Go back to Giovanni, and I'm sure you'll get to keep your job as a criminal executive. If you can bring us more true information, then I'll trust you and help you out. But, we'll be taking the rest of these Grunts with me.", finished the Top Coordinator.

Ariana sighed. "Fine. It makes sense not to trust me right now, but I expect your opinion to change soon.", exclaimed the red-haired executive as she ran through the halls of the abandoned warehouse, and out of Wallace's sight.

Wallace returned his Walrein as he exited the room, with lots of thoughts reeling through his brain. Was Ariana really the person who tipped them off about what was going on here? If so, then he made the right decision by letting her go, so she would be able to get more information from the inside. But, if she was lying, then the Top Coordinator had made a grave mistake letting her go back to Giovanni, as she could continue performing evil acts for Team Rainbow Rocket and assisting their plans.

Wallace walked back to the main storage room of the warehouse, where he returned his Ludicolo and noticed Alder had called some nearby traveling G-Men agents to assist with the capture of the remaining Grunts.

"Wallace? Was there anyone else in that one other room?", asked Alder suspiciously. "You were in there for a while… ", the Unova Champion muttered as he hauled a tied-up Grunt onto his shoulder, while the other G-Men agents carried the other Grunts out of the warehouse as well.

Wallace was hesitant before speaking to his colleague. "No… there was nobody else in that room, but there were a lot of cargo boxes with useful information.", explained the Top Coordinator, and Alder nodded in understanding.

"All right. We had better get a move on, to make sure we catch up with Lance and the others.", explained Alder, and he, along with Wallace and the G-Men agents, left the warehouse behind for their fellow Champions at the harbor.

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Vermillion City. Afternoon.**_

"Come on, guys! There's something going on down by the harbor!", exclaimed Ash as he ran through the city streets, followed by the rest of his small group, who were slightly trailing behind the raven-haired trainer.

"Are you sure, Ash?", asked Leaf. "Yeah, maybe try using your Aura to make sure!", explained Cilan, and Ash nodded his head and closed his eyes while concentrating on the dormant power inside of him.

Ash's vision was soon outlined by the blue glow of the people's Auras, and Ash scanned through the city streets, finding nothing, until he reached what looked like Vermillion Harbor, where he could sense four familiar Aura outlines.

"I've found the Champions!", shouted Ash, which definitely got the group's attention. "Are you sure? You better be serious!", shouted Iris in desperation, but Ash nodded his head confidently, his irises shining with a bright blue glow.

"I saw the Auras of Cynthia, Lance, Steven, and Diantha down by the harbor! There's got to be something going on down there, and we're gonna be the ones to find out!", exclaimed Ash enthusiastically.

"Maybe you should be quieter, Ash.", said Serena. "You know, we don't want the whole city knowing where we are.", exclaimed the Pokemon Performer, and Ash nodded his head in understanding.

"I know what I'm doing, Serena. But we can either stay around in the city and do nothing, or we can go to the harbor and get on a ship out of here as soon as possible!", exclaimed Ash.

"How about we go to the port? We can call the others and tell them where to go, and then we'll be out of here as soon as we can!", explained Misty, and Leaf smiled. "Great. Let's get everything set up, and then we can get out of here quickly.", reassured the G-Men agent.

Suddenly, Leaf's X-Transceiver started to ring again, and Leaf looked at the caller ID before facing back towards the group. "It's from Lance. Let me answer this, and then we'll call the others.", explained Leaf as she accepted the call.

"Hello, Leaf? This is Lance with another update, since I knew that you're in the area. We've captured Petrel, but Proton got away. Wallace and Alder are with the rest of us, and we're heading back to Pallet Town.", exclaimed the Indigo Champion, and Leaf nodded her head.

"Thanks for the update, Lance. I'll be in the city shortly to deal with any events after the fact.", finished Leaf as she disconnected from the call, and the holograms on the X-Transceiver disappeared.

"All right. So weren't you about to call the others now?", asked Ash, and Leaf nodded her head, before calling Gary on herX-Transceiver, and Cilan went off to call Dawn on his PokeNav, ready to notify her about the new information they had to share with each other.

* * *

"Max! Are you sure this is the right way to go?", asked May, desperate for a right answer from her younger brother. Her group was still traveling through the bustling streets of Vermillion City, hoping that a call from one of the other groups would break them out of this confusing city's road system.

"I'm sure of it, May! The PokeNav never lies!", exclaimed Max triumphantly, until he ran straight into a dead end, causing him to fall over anime style while his sister raged in the background.

"You know what, what if we let somebody else handle the directions. How does that sound?", asked Dawn, who was trying to prevent any unnecessary conflict from getting out of hand amongst the group's members, but nobody else spoke up to relieve their youngest member of directional duties.

"You know what, let me handle it.", grumbled Zoey as she snatched Max's PokeNav right out of his hand, surprising him. "Hey! Give that back!", he shouted as he tried to jump to grab the device, which Zoey was holding high above his head.

Dawn chuckled to herself at the series of events unfolding before her, until she was interrupted with the sounds of Paul grunting to himself and walking towards her, a grim expression on his face.

"What's wrong, Paul?", asked Dawn in concern, while it took a few seconds for Paul to turn around, as if he was hesitant about something. "At this rate, we'll never get out of here in time. The other groups might as well be on a boat to Sinnoh or something.", muttered the purple-haired trainer as he crossed his arms in disgust.

"Well, we just have to be patient, that's all.", reassured Dawn, who again was trying to keep everyone calm and not let anyone create unneeded conflict, since that was the last thing their group needed right now.

"Well, instead of watching everyone else do it, why don't you get the PokeNav and help us out?", muttered Paul softly. Dawn's eyebrows raised in surprise and she turned to face the purple-haired trainer, with parts of her face turning red. "You really mean that?", she asked

Paul shrugged. "What else could I mean? You're practically the most competent person in this group.", he mumbled softly, but Dawn still heard him, her faint blush growing larger. "Well… thanks, Paul. I really appreciate it.", exclaimed the Pokemon Coordinator softly.

Dawn's thoughts were interrupted by her Poketch ringing, signifying that she was getting a call. She answered almost instantly, until she was met with the demanding voice of Cilan.

"Dawn? Are you there?", asked Cilan's voice, prompting Dawn to answer immediately. "Well, we're stuck in the streets, and nobody can read a map correctly. Do you have any updates?", asked the Pokémon Coordinator.

"Yeah. Ash is sensing something going on down the harbor, and we're on our way there right now. Where are you guys, anyway?", asked the Pokémon Connoisseur, and Dawn turned her head towards the rest of her group, who were crowding around her to hear Cilan speak.

"Well, I'm not actually sure. We're extremely lost, and we have no idea where to go to get to the harbor.", confessed Dawn sheepishly, and it took a moment for Cilan to respond again.

"Wait a minute! I can track your location with my PokeNav, so I can help you out from here.", exclaimed Cilan, causing Dawn's group to breath a giant sigh in relief. They were finally going to get out of this maze-like city once and for all.

"All right. So how exactly do we get out of here?", asked Dawn as she turned to face Paul, who then shrugged, a sheepish grin on his face.

* * *

"What's taking you guys so long? Can't you run the least bit faster!", grumbled Barry, who stood at least ten feet away from the rest of his group, who was struggling to keep up with the speedy trainer.

"We could try, but I can speak for all of us that we don't want to pass out in exhaustion, that's all.", huffed Gary, who was panting to catch his breath.

Barry… just wait up for us… I promise we'll get there eventually… ", exclaimed Brock tiredly, and he reluctantly walked back towards Brock and the others.

"Fine… but I'll fine all of you if we don't get out of here in the next few hours!", shouted the impatient Pokémon trainer, prompting the rest of the group to fall over anime style.

"I think that's enough with the fining part.", exclaimed Gary as he pushed Barry to the back of the group. "If we just walk at a normal pace, we'll get out eventually."

Brock sighed in relief as he began to walk with the rest of the group, but his thoughts were interrupted by him noticing Drew walking by himself and twiddling with a rose in his hands.

"Hey, Drew!", called Kenny, who's yell grabbed the Pokémon Coordinator's attention, and he hid the rose behind his back in an attempt to fool Kenny.

"What are you gonna do with that rose you've got there?", asked Kenny suspiciously, causing Drew's face to turn pale in horror. "Oh, it's just something I found on the ground, that's all.", stammered the green-haired Coordinator.

Brock raised an eyebrow and turned around to look at Drew, who still looked extremely pale, until his eyes laid on the rose he was holding behind his back shyly, and it all clicked for him.

He walked up to the Pokémon Coordinator, and started to whisper in his ear. "That rose is for May, right?", asked Brock suspiciously, causing Drew's eyes to widen in surprise.

"What the… how did you know?", stammered Drew, who was extremely nervous since more people now knew about his secret.

Brock shrugged. "I've known for years. Ever since you started giving her roses. I mean, how romantic is that?", explained the Pokémon Doctor as Drew sighed.

"Whatever. But don't tell anyone else. Especially not May.", finished Drew intimidatingly, prompting Brock to back away in fear.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.", exclaimed Brock, causing Drew to sigh in relief. "But you might be in luck. I think she likes you back.", he finished.

Drew raised an eyebrow, as if he wasn't sure that what Brock was saying was actually true. "How are you sure she likes me back? I've never seen her act like that towards me… ", he mumbled, trying to keep his voice low so the nobody else would hear him.

"Really? She left Ash, her own brother, and I just to go to Johto with you, and then you both went to Sinnoh. What do you think that means?", explained Brock, who raised an eyebrow.

Drew's face shifted into that of shock and recognition. "I… I never figured that out before… I was so obsessed with me liking herthat I never paid attention to what she felt.", he confessed sheepishly.

The Pokémon Coordinator took a deep breath before speaking again. "Man, I guess I really sound like Ash right now… ", he muttered, and Brock chuckled to himself.

"Brock! Drew! The others called us! We gotta go to the harbor!", exclaimed Gary, snapping the two out of their thoughts. "We're coming! Wait up!", the two of them shouted as they started to run in order to catch up with the others.

* * *

"Where in the world is the last group?", asked an impatient Leaf. Her group and Gary's group had been waiting there for at least half an hour, but there was no sign of Dawn's group anywhere.

"Come on, Leaf. We've been waiting for this long, I'll sure we can handle a little bit more waiting.", reassured Gary, but Leaf continued to be impatient on the daily docks.

Meanwhile, Misty looked at Ash, who was talking with Cilan about something a few feet away from her. After making sure he wouldn't be near her for a while, she decided to walk towards Serena.

The Pokémon Performer noticed Misty walking up towards her, and she turned around to face the Gym Leader. "Hey, Misty. What's up?", asked Serena, but Misty was silent for a minute or so before responding to her.

Hey… I was meaning to talk to you about something.", explained Misty, and Serena raised an eyebrow in confusion. "It's all right. Go ahead!", exclaimed the Pokémon Performer.

Misty noticed how happy and cheerful Serena sounded, and she felt bad that she would have to start this risky conversation with her, but it needed to be done. "So… this is about Ash. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.", explained the Gym Leader grimly.

Serena's cheerful mood dipped once Misty finished her last sentence. Ever since this new journey begun, she had her suspicions about her, but she was never truly sure that she also had feelings for Ash.

"I… I like him too. I've liked him for the past five and a half years, and I just heard from Clemont that you have feelings for him as well. So… I just thought we could sort something out, or try to make a compromise, you know… ", muttered Misty, but Serena was silent in shock.

Serena was in a state of shock at the moment. She thought she was the only one who had feelings for Ash, but she just had a rude awakening. Her thoughts of surprise, however, soon turned into that of anger, and she approached Misty with fire burning in her eyes.

Listen, Misty. If this is about how you want me to step aside and for you to take Ash away from me, then I won't accept that.", grumbled Serena intensely, causing the Gym Leader to back away in fear.

"I-I didn't mean it that way, Serena… I just was asking if we could work something out… that's all.", mumbled Misty softly, but Serena was well beyond reason, her anger quickly taking control of her body, so Misty sighed and walked away, feeling terrible about what she just did.

Her deep thoughts were interrupted by some noises behind her, and Misty turned around to see Dawn racing towards them, followed by the rest of her group. "What took you guys so long? We were waiting for hours!", exclaimed Leaf as she and the two groups reunited with their missing third.

"Well, Max apparently has no idea as to how to navigate a crowded city, so that helped.", grumbled May as she messed up her brother's hair. "But, at least we're all back together here. Anyways, do we have any idea as to where we're going next in the first place?", asked the brunette in confusion.

Leaf rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Well, I thought we would wait for everyone to come back until we could decide where we're going, so yeah… ", muttered the G-Men agent, causing everybody else to fall over dramatically.

* * *

Meanwhile, a disguised Proton was sneaking around the docks, being careful not to attract any attention from that group of Trainers in front of him. He still had no real idea as to how he survived that Giga Impact from Steven's Mega Metagross, but he was still here, ready to search through more boxes of cargo to find more information on how to control the subject.

He was about to re-enter the ship's cargo hold with his stolen uniform and worker ID, until he noticed one of those kids turn around and look in his direction, and he looked back, his eyes widening in shock as he recognized that face.

He had two options. One, blow his cover in the middle of a harbor, but he would have a chance to apprehend those trainers, or two, keep his disguise, but let them get away and continue to mess up their plans.

In a flash, Proton decided that he needed to protect Team Rainbow Rocket over himself, exactly like what Archer did, and so he tore off his disguise and ran towards the kids. "You scum! You're all coming with me now!", he shouted as he ran towards the nearest person in that group and tried to deliver a punch right to his face.

Ash turned around to see a green-haired man in a black uniform run up towards him, and the man raised his arm, presumably about to punch him, but Ash reacted almost instantly. He dodged the first punch, grabbed the man's arm with his left hand, and punched him in the stomach with an extra Aura boost.

Proton screamed as he was sent flying into the ship's hull, and as he got up, he could see a crowd starting to form around the scene. He grumbled to himself, as people watching him was the last thing he needed, but he ran back up and grabbed the kid who punched him and put him into an instant headlock.

As Ash was marveling over how fast he sent that man flying, he was too distracted to notice the man running back towards him, and so he was startled when he was grabbed from behind and put into a headlock by the man. "What… the… help… ", he mumbled as the man put more pressure into his grip.

"What the hell! Just who do you think you are?", shouted Ritchie as he saw the man holding his friend in a headlock, but Leaf was silent. She recognized this person from all her sessions with Lance about wanted criminal operatives, and this was Team Rocket's Proton standing right in front of her, in the flesh.

"Listen here, kid. Nobody messes with Team Rainbow Rocket and gets away with it twice. So you and your little posse are gonna come with me, right now!", shouted Proton manically as he could see the trainer suffocating under his headlock.

He then scanned the people standing around him, and his eyes fell upon a girl in a black getup, but he was shocked once he noticed the G-Men issued X-Transceiver on her left wrist, and he cursed to himself.

Why did it always have to be the G-Men? He hated that organization with every bone in his body, and he was now determined than ever to take this group of meddlers out as quick as possible.

Misty looked on in shock as Proton pulled out a pistol with his free hand and pointed it at Ash, while still holding him in a ferocious headlock. "Don't move an inch, or this guy gets it! This is payback for messing with Team Rainbow Rocket, you scum!", explained Proton. He seemed almost insane with the way he was laughing, similar to Archer, but maybe that was how devoted every Rocket was to their organization.

Misty closed her eyes, her fists clenching in anger. She knew the risks if she tried to approach Proton, as he would shoot Ash, but she had to do something to save the boy she loved. Her bright blue-green eyes shot open, filled with the determination of a rushing wave, and Proton almost looked scared when looking back at her.

The Cerulean Gym Leader felt the rush of water in her ears as she ran at top speed towards the Rocket Admin, and slammed into his side with full force. Proton lost grip of Ash and his pistol, and both clattered to the ground as the Rocket Executive was sent flying backwards, away from everyone else.

Misty looked around, not wondering what was going on, until she noticed Ash lying down on the ground, soaking wet. "No… wake up!", she shouted as she fell down to her knees, being careful not to use Ash's name in front of the large crowd behind her.

"Uh… what the… ", mumbled Ash, and Misty felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, since he had woken up. Ash was about to mutter Misty's name out loud, but she shook her head and he remained silent.

"Don't worry. I've got you.", exclaimed Misty as she helped pick Ash up and supported him as he walked off, leaving the rest of the group to watch in awe and shock at the series of events that just played out.

"Normally I would be happy for the two of them right now.", confessed Brock to Gary, who was standing next to him. "But did Misty… just use Surf right before?", he asked in total confusion, while Gary stood over in shock as well. "I… I have no idea, Brock. I have no clue.", exclaimed the Pokemon researcher.

Meanwhile, Leaf was handling the crowd of reporters and passerby that were observing the scene, and trying to keep them from reaching Ash and the others, since that would blow their cover for sure. "Everyone, just be quiet! If anyone has any questions, you can take it up with Lance. Now, please be organized here!", she shouted.

Misty had just put back her disguise on and was about to sit down on a nearby bench with Ash, until she was approached by a man, who had a gigantic smile on his face. "Consider yourself lucky, ma'am! Thanks to your incredible display of heroism, I'm glad to give you an expenses-paid trip to Hoenn on Schoenberg Cruises! The boat is just over there, and I'll gladly let you and your friends on board!", exclaimed the man enthusiastically.

Misty was about to speak, but Leaf stepped in and relieved her of her post. "Thank you so much, sir. We'll be glad to get on board, especially with what just happened back there.", exclaimed the G-Men agent as she got the others to walk towards the cruise ship, with them being extremely grateful of their lucky break as well.

Misty was about to help Ash walk, but she felt extremely tired herself. She was about to collapse when Brock put his arms around the both of them and began to walk, supporting them long enough to get onto the boat.

* * *

"Misty… why did you save me back there?", asked Ash in confusion. The whole group was now on the boat and most of them were in their rooms, but Misty and Ash were still on the deck, being watched by Brock from afar so that either of them didn't collapse due to their tiredness. "I could have handled it myself… ", finished the raven-haired trainer.

"Well, Ash… I just saw that you were in danger, and I just took a shot at it.", explained Misty, and Ash finally showed some understanding. "And besides, you've saved me so many times in the past, so I thought I would return the favor.", concluded the Gym Leader.

"Well, thanks, Misty. You really did save my hide out there.", exclaimed Ash sheepishly, and Misty smiled. She was sure of her reasons to take that risk and save Ash, but a million other unanswered questions were racing through her mind right now. What did she exactly do to save him? What would come of her and Serena's fight over Ash?

Misty was slightly worried for what the next few days held for her, but the best thing she could have right now was a good night's sleep, as the sun was starting to set, and she figured that after today, she would be out for several hours. "All right, Ash. I'll see you in the morning.", exclaimed the Gym Leader as she stood up from the bench and started to walk up towards her room.

Ash was about to say something back to Misty, but he was interrupted by Misty's voice again. "And Ash… you're welcome.", the Gym Leader exclaimed as she smiled at him, then turned around and walked up to the stairs for the first-class cabins.

Ash stared at the spot where Misty just was for a few seconds, and then turned back to the setting sun. He had somewhat settled his conflict of emotions with Brock's help, but he had more questions than before about the redhead that saved his life. He knew he was thinking about the same thing last night, but tomorrow, he was sure he would solve the puzzle inside of his heart completely.

* * *

Two updates in two straight weeks? I seriously can't believe it myself, but it took a lot of energy out of me to work on this chapter these past few days. I will be busy during next week and the week after, so don't expect me to release any more chapters for at least the next two weeks. Also, I'm sorry if I portrayed Serena as somewhat mean and unlike her actual character, but I was trying to make her sound defensive of her feelings toward Ash and how Misty is involved in that equation. As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	14. XIII - It's About Time

**I'm back, everyone! With another weekly update, I can safely say that I am getting into the groove of things with this story, and I'm having a blast each time I sit down and start to write every chapter. Anyway, I hope you have fun reading this chapter as well as the rest of my story!  
**

 **Here's a few review responses, then onto the story.**

 **Nutellagirl: You know what, I didn't expect that scene to end up looking like that when I finished chapter 13, but I'll just leave that up to you own minds to figure out.**

 **Nutellagirl: Thank you for the support! I'm trying my hardest to pump out a chapter per week for the story, and I'm glad that you and other people are enjoying it as well. And don't worry, I will make more Ikarishipping interactions! However, this chapter is saved for a different pairing I have in the story.**

 **PrettyPansexual: Thank you so much! I'm extremely happy that lots of people are enjoying my story, which is one of the reasons why I started writing it in the first place.**

* * *

 **The Eighteen**

Chapter XIII

It's About Time

* * *

 _ **December 12, 2002. Unknown Location. Evening.**_

Proton jumped out of the chopper and onto the ground, and soon followed by Ariana as the helicopter's pilot flew off to the hangar inside the base. It was hard to navigate the rough waters around the island that served as their base, but that was precautionary to make sure nobody else approached the area at all.

Ariana stayed behind Proton as they walked into the office sections of the base, where the top officers and Executives lived and worked in. As they entered the building, however, they were greeted by two agents and a Meowth.

"Proton… the boss is requesting a meeting with you, so you better get there as soon as possible.", explained James, as he tried not to act out of order in front of the top Executive, but Proton just nodded his head and walked off towards the boss's quarters on the top floor.

Ariana watched as Proton walked off and out of sight, and then she turned her attention to the magenta-haired agent in front of her, who was fidgeting with her hands, as well as the Meowth besides her.

"The boss is also requesting a meeting with you, Ariana, but you can wait until after Proton is finished.", exclaimed Jessie, as she let the Executive pass her and towards her personal quarters.

Meowth wiped the sweat off his forehead as he saw Ariana pass him and his teammates, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Man, Ariana back in da saddle? That's something I wouldn't expect in a million years!", exclaimed the Scratch Cat Pokemon.

"You got that right.", added James, who was just walking back to Jessie and Meowth. "With Archer and Domino dead, it seems like the boss had to take it up a notch to add reinforcements.", finished the lavender-haired agent.

As he finished his last sentence, James noticed that Jessie's face had changed into that of sadness and anger, and he immediately knew why. "Jessie… I didn't mean it like that… ", explained James in an effort, but his partner still seemed upset.

"Wait a minute. Why'd Jess get so upset all of a sudden?", asked a confused Meowth, and James attempted to answer his Pokemon partner, but he was interrupted by Jessie.

"Archer and Domino… they sacrificed their lives to Team Rainbow Rocket, and Giovanni praised them as true martyrs that would do anything for this organization.", she exclaimed.

"My mother was one of those people… she would do anything for this organization… and she died while researching Mew down south.", finished the magenta-haired agent, and she, James, and Meowth all understood now.

They had all joined Team Rocket for a chance to get out of their lives in the dumps of society, from homelessness to bike gang members. During that time, Team Rocket was a beacon of hope for people like the Trio, where people couldn't be hopeless or be in the dumps anymore.

If they all came to Team Rainbow Rocket for a chance at life, then why was it encouraging people to die by its name?

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. At Sea. Middle of the night.**_

Misty's eyes shot open, and she found herself in a black room, with darkness all around her, which surprised her. The last thing she remembered was going to bed on the cruise ship and falling asleep, until she woke up here.

Misty decided to walk around this place, and she swore it was familiar to the place that Ash said he was in when he was knocked unconscious after the incident in Celadon, but that didn't matter to her right now. All she wanted was to figure out why she ended up here, and how she could get out of here.

She was walking straight for a few minutes, or so she thought, until she came across an outline of a door, much like what Ash had described a few days earlier, causing Misty to suspect that this place and the one Ash talked about were one and the same.

"All right… here we go!", exclaimed Misty as she opened the door, and found herself inside another pitch-black room, except for a large, reflecting object that seemed to cover the back wall of the room.

The Cerulean Gym Leader walked up to the back wall and stopped once she reached the wall, which looked something like a natural glass mirror. "What is this thing?", Misty murmured as she looked at the wall, which sent her reflection looking back at her.

Misty could see her reflection stare back at her very clearly, almost as if she was looking at herself, and even her shadow from the light of the glass was present on her reflection.

Misty then noticed that her shadow seemed to grow out of her outline on the reflection, and once it stopped moving, it showed the outline of a woman a few inches taller than Misty, seemingly older than the Gym leader, and with what looked like long hair.

Misty watched as her reflection in the mirror disappeared, now leaving the black shadow outline of this mysterious person, and she saw the shadow put a hand up to the reflective wall, almost as if it was standing on the other side.

As Misty watched the shadow put her hand up to the mirror, she felt compelled to do the same, even though he knew it could be a bad idea if she touched it and something went wrong, but something inside of Misty compelled her to touch it, almost as if it meant something important to her.

Misty put her hand on the wall, to match up with the shadow's hand and was taken aback as a cerulean blue glow began to outline it, causing her to try and back away, but some part of her kept her hand on the reflective wall.

The Gym Leader watched in awe as the very same cerulean blue glow erupted around her body, and as the glow around the outline began to seemingly move through the mirror and go around Misty as well.

The two cerulean blue glows soon combined into one, and it soon outlined all of Misty's body. She continued to be speechless, even as the light dissipated around her and seemed to go back into her body, leaving the Gym Leader in shock and disbelief as to what just happened to her.

Once the light was gone, Misty looked back at the wall, and saw with shock that the person seemingly on the other side had disappeared, and so Misty started to back away in fear, worried that something else was about to happen to her.

Misty ran towards the door she entered the room in, and she pulled it open as fast as she could and tried to run out of there as fast as possible as well, but something stopped her in her tracks.

Misty's eyes shot open for the second time in that short time span, but she wasn't in that pitch-black setting anymore. She stood up and looked around, only to see that she was back on the cruise ship that was taking her and the others to Hoenn.

Misty looked under the covers to see that she was wearing something completely different under her pajamas, that being some kind of fancy blue skirt with what felt like a cloak attached on the back, which freaked her out. It was eerily similar to the Aura Guardian outfit Ash had worn when he woke up from his unconsciousness.

Misty didn't know what to think about what just happened to her, but she did feel somewhat different, as if she felt more stronger or powerful now. However, she did take off those weird robes she had woken up wearing and put them into her Spheal backpack, wanting to stick to wearing her normal clothes at the moment.

As Misty walked through the room and passed Brock and Ash's beds, where they were still sound asleep, but that did give Misty an idea. Maybe Ash would have some answers to the questions that had been plaguing her so far today, at least that was what she hoped.

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. Pallet Town. Morning.**_

Cynthia's eyes flickered open as the alarm song started going into the main chorus, and she sat in bed for a few more seconds before tiredly reaching up and shutting off the blasted alarm clock for good.

She yawned as she sat up in bed, until she saw that nobody else was up and they all were still sound asleep in their beds, save for Steven, who grumbled groggily to himself in the pull-out couch he shared with Wallace.

"Unngh… ", mumbled Steven as he sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes, and turned to face Cynthia, since she was the only other awake person at the moment. "Wait… what day is it… ?", he asked slowly, since he had just woken up.

Cynthia picked up her Poketch from the nightstand, and pressed a few buttons to check the date. "It's… the 13th of December.", she mumbled, and Steven gave off a loud grumble while tossing around in bed.

"What's wrong, Steven?", she asked, not knowing why he shared a dislike for this date, but the first Hoenn Champion was hesitant before responding to his colleague, and for a good reason.

"It's been two weeks. Two weeks since this bullcrap started.", Steven muttered under his breath, which surprised Cynthia. It had, in fact, been two weeks, counting the day it all begun, when the first incident occurred in Pewter City on the 31st of November.

It had been two weeks since this whole incident started, leaving Indigo Plateau destroyed, and the Indigo G-Men without a headquarters. Two weeks since Ash Ketchum and his friends had been first targeted by Giovanni, leaving them vulnerable for an attack by his forces.

Two weeks since the first small domino had fallen in Western Kanto - causing the whole foundation to collapse right on top of the six Champions, the leaders of their regions and the ones that were expected to carry their people out of trouble, not cause it themselves.

"So what if it's been two weeks?", exclaimed a different voice, this one belonging to Lance. "The only thing we can do here is go forward, and not look back.", grumbled the Indigo Champion.

"He knows that, Lance.", retorted Wallace, and Lance gave a slight glare at him in return. "It's just that these past two weeks have been a whirlwind for everyone, and Steven here was just pointing out.", he reassured.

"I know these past few weeks have been hard on everyone.", chirped Diantha nervously. "But if we manage to work as a team, and not as six people by themselves, then we can work together and put and end to all of this. Isn't that what you want?", she finished, and the others nodded their heads in understanding.

"Yeah, what she said.", muttered Alder from the other side of the room, causing the others to laugh amongst themselves, lightening the mood for the time being. Cynthia, however, saw this and came to a realization.

She and the other Champions had been working fine over the past few weeks, and had even managed to stop the conflict from getting any worse, but if they were to stop the full threat of Giovanni's assault, then they would need to work as a complete team, with no selfishness or prejudice holding them back.

"Would you look at that? Forty-seven missed calls on my public number.", exclaimed Wallace. "Something must have happened in Vermillion, but thank Arceus for silent mode!", he finished as he began to scroll through empty messages and voicemails on his PokeNav Plus.

"Sorry Wallace, but I've got sixty-six. Tough luck!", chirped Diantha as she opened up her Holo Caster, plugged in her headphones, and began listening to missed calls on her own, one at a time. "Well, I've got you both beat. One hundred and eight.", mocked Lance as he checked his PokeGear, causing the others to fall down anime style.

"Of course you'd win, Lance. This is your home region, after all.", explained Cynthia with a shrug. "And, you also have all of Johto to ring you up every time something goes awry. And during these two weeks, there's sure been a lot of those."

The Champions laughed to themselves while discussing rude voicemails or arguing about the number of calls they got, until Steven, still groggy from earlier, interrupted the fun with a seemingly urgent announcement by walking out of the bathroom.

"Now, who's going to interrogate Petrel? He's still tied up in the basement.", announced Steven, prompting the others to chuckle at the mistake they made, and some were falling on the floor in laughter. "We kept him down there all night? Man, he must be passed out by now!", exclaimed Alder.

"I completely forgot about that! I guess that's what a good night's sleep can do to you.", laughed Lance hysterically as he walked out of the room, presumably to interrogate the captured Rocket Executive and possibly gain crucial information.

Lance walked down the stairs into the basement of Professor Oak's laboratory and turned on the lights, revealing Petrel tied to a support pole in the middle of the room. The Indigo Champion looked up to see the other Champions follow him downstairs, lock the door, and all stand in front of Petrel.

"Wake up! Come on, wake up!", exclaimed Alder as he started to slap Petrel's face, and soon enough, the Rocket Executive's eyes snapped open, and his newfound surroundings startled Petrel. "What the-where am I?!", he yelled, extremely confused as to how he ended up here.

"Listen up, Petrel. You're with us now, so you can't just interrupt us like that.", retorted Steven, causing the Rocket Executive to cower in fear at the sight. "Now, where is the Rocket Base?!", yelled the Hoenn Champion, startling Petrel as he tried to back away, but he was still tied to the wall.

Petrel looked shocked, almost astonished, as if he was surprised at the question being directed at him."Like I'd ever tell you! I would never betray Team Rainbow Rocket like that-", he finished, but he was cut off by Lance shortly after.

"We're not going to ask again without an answer, Petrel. And from the looks of it, we hold all the cards here. Now, where is the Rocket Base?!", shouted Lance, and if the mortified look on Petrel's face meant anything, then he was in for a rough morning.

"I'll never tell!", refused Petrel, and Lance was starting to get tired of his stubbornness, and so he decided to start small and simple with his next few questions. "Fine. I'll go easy on you first. Now, why _exactly_ were you in Vermillion?", exclaimed Lance intensely.

Petrel knew he couldn't spill any secrets or else he would face the boss's ultimate wrath, but Lance was right; he and the Champions controlled all the cards in this situation. "I-I-was-oh, forget it… well, I, as you know, went with Proton and Ariana to Vermillion Harbor… to… look for items… and… "

"What items?!", interrupted Steven, as he cut off the Rocket Executive, and the harsh tone one voice the Hoenn Champion used, reinforced the idea that this was going to be a very, very long day for Petrel, and a day full of nonstop interrogations.

* * *

Delia Ketchum opened the curtains of her living room, and watched as the sunlight crept into the house, warming its occupants up for the first time that day. After a moment of silence, she sighed to herself. The house was just too cold and too quiet without her thoughts of her son.

She then turned around to see Mimey open the back door, with garden gear in hand, and start working on watering the plants. Ever since Ash's death, she had found no pleasure in doing anything she thought as fun, such as tending to her garden.

As to her now-normal routine, she sat down on the couch, and began flipping through old photo albums she had made when Ash was younger. Delia knew that she would have to move on, much like she did when her husband left, but he was still alive, unlike her only son.

The ring of the doorbell snapped her out of her deep thoughts, and she slowly walked up to answer it, only to be greeted by Professor Oak, of all people.

"Samuel… what brings you here this early?", she asked, worried that he would be missing on breakfast or feeding the Pokemon he took care of at the preserve.

"I just stopped by to say hello, and by the looks of it, you could use some company.", explained Professor Oak, but deep down, he also knew that he needed somebody to talk to as well.

Delia paused for a second, knowing that he was right. "Well, it has been two weeks… ", she murmured as she stepped aside to let the Professor in, but to her surprise, he managed to hear that last statement.

"I know, Delia. It's going to be hard, for us and all the other families who've lost their family. But we'll have to get through it.", explained the Professor, and he and Delia both knew there were deeper feelings and meanings beyond the words that were spoken.

"I know we will."

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. Unknown Location. Late Morning.**_

"Ariana? The boss is requesting your appearance in his office.", exclaimed Matori through Ariana's laptop screen, and the Executive closed her computer and left her office.

She knew every lie she told added more of the risk of being caught, but she was capable of lying around Giovanni. After all, she had been doing it sporadically for the past fifteen years.

Ariana walked up to Giovanni's office on the top floor, and waited patiently at the door, mentally preparing herself for the inevitable. She straightened herself out as the door swung open, and she walked inside.

Giovanni gave a blank stare from his desk at the back of the room while Ariana walked inside, looking nervous and confident at the same time. "Giovanni, sir. I apologize for the failure of our mission, but-"

"No buts! I sent you along with our top Executives, and you failed? Please, tell me why you failed to complete such an easy task.", retorted the Rainbow Rocket Boss, obviously aggravated at her failure in Vermillion, along with Proton and Petrel.

Ariana flinched in fear at her boss's voice, which always managed to strike fear in the hearts of his subordinates. "Well, I-I was directed by Proton to set up a home base in one of the abandoned warehouses by the docks, which I did, and I was directing them with the mission, until we got broken into by two Champions, sir.", she explained, desperately trying to tell Giovanni her side of the story.

"Ah… I see. Nevertheless, I am still extremely disappointed in you. You failed to add reinforcements to the harbor to aid Proton, who was lucky to make it out there safely, and Petrel, who was arrested by the G-Men and taken to their temporary headquarters.", retorted Giovanni, and Ariana tried to remain calm while she was being scolded.

"Yes, sir. I'll use those tactics to my advantage next time I get sent out on a mission.", exclaimed Ariana as she bowed and started to walk out of Giovanni's office, half expecting him to call her back and reprimand her once again for her failures, but the Rainbow Rocket Boss was silent as she left his office.

Giovanni laid back in her chair and sighed. "Ariana… and for the longest time, I thought I trusted you.", he exclaimed to himself while laying back in his chair. "Do you really think I'm that careless and stupid not to notice any plotting from behind my back?", he asked to himself sarcastically.

The Rainbow Rocket Boss pressed a button on his desk, and a panel in the middle swung up, revealing a HD screen, and more panels on the top slid over to make way for a keyboard and mouse. "Hello, Matori?", Giovanni asked as he opened a call to his secretary through a feed on the monitor.

"Yes, Giovanni? What is it that you need me to do?", she asked, and Giovanni was silent for a moment, choosing to lay back in his chair and think to himself before answering Matori once more.

"I'd like you to… keep a tighter eye on Ariana for me. Maybe install some cameras in her office, bug her computer, I don't really know. But I do have my suspicions.", exclaimed Giovanni as he spun back in his chair, like a stereotypical villain from the movies.

"Yes, sir. I'll ask some Grunts to do it at once, when Ariana is on another errand.", finished Matori, which brought a smile onto her boss's face. "Good. I'll let her have the illusion that she's fallen back into my favor, while I stay back and confirm my suspicions.", explained Giovanni.

Giovanni disconnected from the call and was silent in his office, as he was starting to reflect on his plans for Kanto and how they had mostly failed spectacularly. Maybe, he decided, it was time to search the other regions. Johto had absolutely nothing, and Kanto hadn't gone the way it should have been, with two Executives dead, one a turncoat, one captured, and the last one safe and sound.

All of a sudden, a sound rang from his computer, signaling that someone had requested a voice call with him, and Giovanni gladly opened the call feed, revealing his head scientist, Professor Namba. "Ah, yes. What do you have to say, Nooba?", asked the Rainbow Rocket Boss playfully.

"It's Namba!", shouted the annoyed scientist, but his mood returned to normal. "My team down on the basement level have come with startling results of our tests on the subject.", the scientist. finished, as Giovanni sat up in his chair, wanting to hear the results. "And… what did the tests show?", he asked in anticipation.

"Well, we performed tests to see if it reacted to objects and substances, with the usual variables. Water, light, dark, a Pokeball, you know the drill. But when it reacted to light, it acted differently than it did to any other substance… as if it wanted the light, and it managed to absorb some of the light in the lightbulb we used for testing.", explained Namba, but Giovanni didn't seem impressed one bit.

"Obviously it reacts like that! It's not called the Blinding One in the legends for nothing!", shouted Giovanni in exasperation, and Namba visibly flinched at his boss's tone of voice. "Well, we discovered that-"

Giovanni raised an eyebrow, and his face came closer to the monitor. "Discover what? What did you find out?", he asked suspiciously, and Namba gathered up some notes and began to read off his paper to his the boss. "Well, when exposed to light, the subject began to absorb it, almost as if it feeds off the light. I assumed that we can use its abilities to help with out plans.", explained the scientist.

"Hmm… interesting.", muttered Giovanni, who looked pleased with Namba's results. "Then continue absorbing tests until we find an appropriate means of controlling the subject, and then we can set it out under our bidding.", exclaimed the Rainbow Rocket Boss.

"But, Giovanni! What will we use to give the subject the light it so desperately desires?", asked Professor Namba, and Giovanni thought to himself for a moment before answering him."How about you do some research, and you can get back to me tonight with some more information.", exclaimed the Rocket Boss.

Namba nodded his head."Very well then. I'll get back to you as soon as my team and I have a solution.", exclaimed the scientist as he ended the call feed, leaving Giovanni at his desk, alone for the time being, and scrolling through more work tabs.

Even though he had mostly failed in Kanto and Johto, that failure had led to better plans and strategies being made to better fulfill his plans. His failures had paved the way for success, and he knew he would be the one on top in the end, regardless of anything those teens and the G-Men did to stop him.

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. At Sea. Late Morning.**_

"Ash! Don't you have any manners at all? This is just like the St. Anne all over again!", exclaimed Misty in exasperation, as Ash was devouring any meal in sight, but this caught the attention of the others. "The Saint Anne? The cruise liner that sunk five years ago? You were on it?", asked Dawn in bewilderment.

"Yeah… we were on it when it sunk, actually.", exclaimed Brock, and the others stared at him in shock and amazement. "We managed to get out through the bottom of the hull, since it flipped over underwater, with the help of our Water-type Pokemon.", finished the Pokemon Doctor.

"I remember now! The news said that there were a few people on board who didn't get on the lifeboats, but I never expected it to be you guys!", exclaimed Gary in amazement, while Ash just shrugged in his seat, while Misty and Brock chuckled to themselves.

"Gary, that was the fifth-least exciting that happened to me in Kanto. I've been through much, much worse situations over the past five years. Misty and Brock can vouch for me, isn't that right?", asked Ash, and the two nodded their heads, but Gary wasn't having it. "Oh yeah? Name your worst.", he snarked, not believing one word his old friend was saying.

Ash stepped up to the plate, ready to answer Gary's challenge. "Well, you all know about what happened in Rota, but there was also that incident in the Orange Islands where-", but Ash was cut off in the middle of his sentence by Misty. "That's a… classified secret! No need to mention that today.", exclaimed the Gym Leader.

Without realizing it, Misty had jumped onto the large table she was sitting next to straight from her seat, and Ash, who was looking up from his fifth bowl of ramen, could sense that something about Misty felt different, but he was cut off again before he could ask her about it.

"Is it just me… or does it smell like salt water in here?", questioned Barry, while Misty slowly backed away and sat down in her seat, trying to remain calm. "Barry, we're on a cruise ship.", retorted Leaf. "There's salt water all around here anyway."

Despite Leaf's nagging, Barry wasn't done just yet. "But the smell couldn't have gone up the whole ship and through the windows, yet still be that strong, right?", he asked suspiciously, and Misty wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She didn't know what was going on, but the look on Ash's face said it all. Something was up.

"That's a twist… that's very twisty… ", muttered Leaf as she started to write something down in her notebook, and the teens stared at her in anticipation, wondering what the G-Men agent would say next, while Misty started to back away in fear of what could happen to her..

Ash noticed this, and so he walked over to her. "We should just get out of here… how does that sound?", asked Ash sheepishly, and Misty nodded her head fiercely. "Please. I need to know what's going on here.", she muttered, and they both walked out of the room and towards the deck.

The rest of the teens, including Leaf, watched as Ash and Misty left the dining hall and presumably went onto the deck. "Okay, that settles it. They are so getting together now.", exclaimed Dawn giddily, and May, Iris, and Bonnie all seemed to share the same opinion.

"I bet that they're going to get together by the time we're off this boat, and that's coming from a professional love expert.", exclaimed Brock, but the others seemed like he was lying. "Says the guy who can't score a date at all.", muttered Max.

Gary stepped up to the plate immediately, ready to hit the slow ball Brock had put down the middle. "I'll take your offer, Brocko! How much are you putting on the line?", asked the Pokemon researcher, who turned towards Brock, ready to set the stakes.

"Strange… the smell is gone now… ", muttered Barry out loud, subsequently interrupting the other conversations the teens were having with each other, and their attention turned to the door where Ash and Misty had left in, wondering what exactly was going on with those two.

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. Pallet Town. Afternoon.**_

"An island? Is that all we've got! This is terrible!", exclaimed Cynthia in exasperation. "We can't get this little information from a captured Rainbow Rocket Executive! What are we doing wrong?", she asked in desperation, hoping for a good answer.

"We're forgetting that Petrel is a master of disguise.", chirped Wallace. "And that set of skills must come with the ability to lie his way out of situations exceptionally well, and if I must say, he's proved that exceptionally well.", finished the Top Coordinator, but Cynthia continued to glare at him.

"Don't praise the enemy here, Wallace! We have an interrogation to complete, and we better find out more of what Rainbow Rocket's planning on doing!", explained Cynthia, and Wallace just backed away in fear, until the other Champions arrived with takeout pizza in their hands.

"At least we got one piece of information, Cynthia. Something is better than nothing, after all.", retorted Lance, but that didn't change the Sinnoh Champion's mood one bit. "Yeah, but what does it mean? What island could they be referring to? The Orange Islands, the Sevii Islands, A, B, and C Islands, Iron Island… ", muttered Cynthia.

"Cynthia, this is only our lunch break, after all. We still have most of the day left to continue interrogating Petrel and make sure he spills any other useful information to us, so you better stay calm. We don't want the press knowing that we've partially gone insane here.", reassured Steven.

"Speaking of which, we haven't even told the press yet. They're still camped out outside Route 1, waiting for a big news scoop to come by and hit them in the face!", chimed in Lance as he put a slice of pizza on everybody's plate, and they all started to eat it as fast as possible.

"Two weeks ago, I was still on my diet, and now I'm enjoying eating pizza. I just hope I don't gain a lot of weight once this over… ", mumbled Wallace. "I do have an image to keep in front of those TV screens.", he finished, causing the others to fall over anime style and roll their eyes to themselves.

"What do you mean, diet? Bouffalant and I eat pizza every day! All part of a good day's breakfast, lunch, and dinner!", chirped Alder, while the other Champions stared at him in silence. "Where does all that pizza go, then?", muttered Diantha, but Alder just shrugged sheepishly.

"Oh, you'll still have a public image, Wallace, just as soon as I call up the Kanto News Network and tell them that we've captured a high-ranking member of Team Rainbow Rocket.", exclaimed Lance, but he was met by increasing stares of suspicion from his colleagues.

"Wait a minute. Why didn't you report this to the press yesterday? Surely they would have found out about this before now.", said Steven on confusion, but Lance didn't seem fazed one bit by Steven's questions.

"Well, the G-Men have priority over the press, so we can get to keep some secrets from them. But I'll call the press up right now, and we'll finally be seen as good people in the public eye again!", exclaimed Lance enthusiastically, but he was met with more suspicious stares.

"Is that all you care about? And I thought I was the diva in our little group!", exclaimed Wallace in astonishment, while Lance gripped his Pokegear tightly, not doing anything else except stare at Wallace intensely.

"I care if the people will trust me enough to let me lead them, Wallace. So just let me call the press, if you will.", retorted Lance. Wallace remained silent, however, prompting Lance to bring his Pokegear to his ear and look for the network's phone number.

"Fine, Wallace. I'll call up the network right now.", exclaimed Lance as he dialed the number in his Pokegear. "And be prepared for interviews. We might have to answer a few questions once the press arrive.", finished the Indigo Champion as he started talking through his Pokegear. "Hello, Kanto News Network? Lance here, and have I got a scoop for you!"

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. Cerulean City. Afternoon.**_

Tracey rang the doorbell to the Cerulean City Gym, hoping that Daisy or her sisters would answer it quickly. He had been traveling to the city multiple times over the past few weeks, since it was clear that Daisy and her sisters needed help, which he was glad to offer.

What he didn't want to admit, however, was that Tracey also wanted to get away from Pallet Town as well. After Ash, Misty, Brock, and even Gary's deaths, the Pokemon watcher had felt empty inside, almost as if a part of him was gone as well with their deaths.

Ash and Misty had given him a chance to travel around the Orange Islands, and eventually meet his idol in Professor Oak, and work for him as well. Brock and Gary had also been good friends once he started work in Pallet Town, and he always considered them good friends.

But with their deaths, Tracey felt like he had nobody to be with anymore. Professor Oak had Ms. Ketchum to talk with all the time, since they were good friends, but for Tracey, his remaining friends were in Cerulean City, those being the Sensational Sisters.

Tracey was snapped out from his deep thoughts by the sounds of a lock turning, and he looked up to see Lily opening the door for him. "Hey, Tracey. How've ya been lately?", asked the blue-haired Sensational Sister quietly.

"Oh, come on, Lily. I was just here yesterday!", said Tracey as he walked inside the Gym, and sat down on the couch, and Lily followed suit shortly after. "Hey, where are Daisy and Violet?", asked the Pokemon Watcher.

Lily was hesitant, but she spoke again. "They're both upstairs… Violet's fine, but I'm worried for Daisy… she's fine when you're here, but when you're not… she's just in her room the whole time.", exclaimed the pink-haired Sensational Sister.

Tracey raised an eyebrow at Lily's explanation, clearly worried for Daisy. "Is she alright? I could go up there and try to help… ", asked the Pokemon Watcher, but Lily shook her head in response.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll just go get Daisy and bring her downstairs. How does that sound?", asked Lily as she stood up from the couch and walked upstairs, while Tracey waited on the couch silently, hoping for an escape from his grief.

The Pokemon Watcher looked up to see Daisy slowly walk down the stairs, and gave a faint smile once she saw Tracey sitting on the couch, and she went over and sat down next to him. "Oh… hey, Tracey. You… wanted to talk to me?", asked the oldest Sensational Sister.

"Yeah… I heard you weren't feeling that well, and I thought that I could try and help out, that's all.", explained Tracey, and Daisy nodded her head in understanding. "Well, like, I've just been thinking about a lot of stuff lately… ", she muttered to herself.

"Is is about Misty?", asked Tracey, interrupting Daisy's train of thought, and she nodded faintly. "It's fine to think about her, Daisy. I think about them a lot too.", he said as he put a hand on Daisy's shoulder, but she didn't look that reassured by his statements.

"I know that… but I'm starting to like, regret this. I was rude to her my whole life, and now I'm only like, realizing how much I brought upon her, and it makes me feel like an idiot.", cried Daisy as she sobbed into Tracey's arms, and his face turned deep red as a result.

"Daisy… everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but you've just got to move on and make a change. Anyone can change for the better, especially you. So what's stopping you from doing that?", Tracey asked, and Daisy looked up, a blush present on her cheeks.

"I… I'm just like, thinking about what I did… going on that cruise and leaving her at the Gym… away from her friends… ", Daisy muttered, but Tracey wasn't going to give up on helping her out just yet. "We always can look to the past, Daisy, but we have to turn to the future if you want to become a better person."

Daisy lifted her head up, some tears left over in her eyes, but with a happy expression nonetheless. "Thanks, Tracey… really. I needed that advice, like so much.", she exclaimed as she wrapped the Pokemon Watcher in a hug, causing him to blush fiercely. "Uh… you're welcome… ", he muttered quietly.

"All right, cut it out! Let's just turn on the news and set these two lovebirds straight.", interrupted Violet as she grabbed the TV remote and turned it on, which sent Daisy and Tracey into shock, as they tried to get out of the hug, sheepish grins on their faces.

As Violet was flipping through TV channels, she stopped once she reached the region-wide Kanto News Network, and she left it on as the news began with a breaking report. "What's going on now?", asked Lily as she walked into the TV room. "Another breaking news report?"

Violet covered her sister's mouth as the news anchor came onto the screen. "Don't you want to hear this!", she hushed as the anchor began to speak. _"Welcome back to the Kanto News Network, with a breaking news report."_ , the anchor stated, and the four people stared at each other worriedly.

" _Reports have surfaced that the Indigo G-Men have captured a high-ranking member of what is now Team Rainbow Rocket. We have Lance Grayson on the phone here, ready to give us more information as to how it happened."_ , exclaimed the anchor, sending Tracey and the others into a state of shock. Maybe the G-Men were able to turn the tide to their favor as well.

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. Twinleaf Town. Afternoon.**_

Johanna scrolled through her contacts on her Poketch, looking for somebody to call and to have a good conversation with. Most of her days in the past two weeks had been full of talks with Palmer, which were starting to get boring after a while.

Johanna stopped once she reached Caroline Maple's number. She had first met May's parents when her daughter became friends with their daughter, and had kept in touch during their contest seasons. Johanna liked Caroline since she was a nice person to talk to, and so she clicked on her icon and called her.

She heard a voice on the third ring, and she was surprised by the sharp tone of voice coming from the other line. "Johanna? You better turn on the news. There's a breaking story on right now.", exclaimed Caroline , and Johanna rushed for the TV remote and turned to the nearest news channel she could find, biased or not.

"What's the story?", asked the former Top Coordinator, until she stopped short once she saw what words were on the TV screen. "Oh… I see now. Man, what a counterattack!", she exclaimed enthusiastically, and she guessed that Caroline felt the same way.

" _The Indigo G-Men have the Rainbow Rocket operative in custody in their headquarters, and are attempting to gain any useful information on the organization's plans. Lance, what do you have to say about this success by your officers?"_ , asked the anchor, and Johanna stared in shock at the TV screen.

"This could really turn the tide here.", exclaimed Johanna, and she was met with an equal amount of surprise from the other end of the call. "Yeah… I know. I just hope the G-Men can keep doing this well, starting now. Especially after what happened in Vermillion City.", Caroline replied through the call feed, and Johanna felt similarly.

The former Top Coordinator turned her attention back to the TV, where Lance was talking. _"Well, when the Rainbow Rocket attack happened in Vermillion City, myself and the other Champions found this operative, with code name Petrel, stalling civilians from Vermillion Harbor, where other high-ranked operatives were searching cargo ships for items. Luckily, we managed to stop them before they got away with anything useful to their plans."_ , exclaimed the Indigo Champion.

Johanna watched in interest as the interviewer continued to talk with Lance, until she stopped short once a picture of a scene at Vermillion Harbor appeared on the screen, and it seemed that Lance could see it as well, due to him squinting at the blurred figures shown there.

" _How do you feel about these unknown heroes, who have requested to not show their faces on camera. They managed to stop another Rainbow Rocket operative from conducting his plans down at Vermillion Harbor yesterday."_ , exclaimed the interviewer, but he was met with silence.

Lance was silent and unmoving for a few seconds, presumably staring at the picture and the blurred faces. His face was a mixture of surprise and disbelief, but quickly shrugged it off and began to answer the interviewer again. Johanna, meanwhile, didn't pay attention to Lance, her eyes still stuck on the picture.

She swore she could see remnants of dark blue hair on one of the people, almost the exact same color as her own hair, but that couldn't be true at all. After being silent for a few seconds of silence, she remembered that she was still calling Caroline, who presumably was watching the same news report in silence as well.

"Caroline… are you seeing this?", asked Johanna, who was practically breathless after looking at the screen for so long. After a few more seconds of silence, a faint voice came through the speakers on her Poketch, just as shocked as her own. "Yeah… almost too good to be true… ", mumbled the Petalburg City resident.

"I know… but I saw Dawn's hair… the same color… ", mumbled the former Top Coordinator, still breathless, and she continued to be met by the same amount of surprise from the voice on the other line. "I could have sworn I saw a green bandanna… I don't know, Johanna. We shouldn't have false hope, just to let it be taken away by the truth."

"That's true… I guess I'll just hang up now.", muttered Johanna as she waited for a final response from Caroline, but she was silent. Johanna hung up from the call while continuing to watch the news, as Lance and the other Champions continuing to answer questions from the network's on-location interviewer.

She was silent for a few minutes, wondering about that blurred picture and if her hopes had really come true, but she was snapped out of her train of thought by excessive knocking at her front door, and so the former Top Coordinator got up from the couch and went to see who was knocking so loudly.

Johanna looked through the peephole to see Palmer waiting at the front porch, fidgeting with his fingers as if he was in a large hurry. Johanna debated whether to let him inside or not, since he was obviously looking to talk to her, but she wasn't in the best of moods at the moment.

The good side in her eventually won out, and she unlocked and opened the door, allowing the Frontier Brain to crash down on the couch almost instantly. "Hey, Palmer. What brings you here?", she asked, but a part inside her had a good guess why he had shown up so quickly this time around.

"Let me guess, you saw the news too?", asked Johanna smugly, and Palmer whirled around, a sheepish grin on his face. "What the-how did you know?", asked the Tower Tycoon as he stared back at the Top Coordinator, a smug smirk on her face.

"You don't know everything about me.", exclaimed Johanna smugly as she sat down back onto the couch, leaving room for Palmer to sit as well. "Come on, we can talk. It's not like I have anything else to do.", she finished as the Frontier Brain crashed down on the couch, ready to spend the rest of the afternoon here.

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. At Sea. Afternoon.**_

"Ash, I really need to talk to you. Something extremely weird is going on, and I need to know why.", begged Misty, and Ash nodded his head in understanding. "All right, Misty. Fire away.", exclaimed the raven-haired trainer, ready to hear what the Gym Leader had to say.

"Well, it all started yesterday, back at the harbor. You were being held by that Rainbow Rocket guy… and I had to do something… so I ran up and slammed into him.", explained Misty. "But I don't think that's actually what happened.", she finished.

Ash raised an eyebrow at this. "What do you mean? I didn't see you do anything extremely weird… ", he said, but he stopped himself short before continuing to talk, which made Misty even more suspicious than ever before.

"But when I helped you up, there was a giant puddle of water, and both you and the Rainbow Rocket guy were both soaking wet, like you had just been hit in the face with a wave.", exclaimed the Gym Leader, and now Ash had a surprised look on his face.

"Yeah… and this is the weirdest part. When I was asleep, I was dreaming that I was in that… room you said you were in, and there was this giant mirror in front of me. I decided to touch it, and this… glow surrounded me. I have my suspicions, but I need you to make sure it's right.", finished Misty, and Ash looked extremely surprised.

Misty noticed Ash's breathless expression, and she decided it was best to continue talking. "And when I thought it couldn't get any more weirder, I wake up with some fancy outfit over my pajamas, and for the whole day, I've felt… different than before.", finished the Gym Leader.

By the time Misty had stopped talking, Ash's jaw had dropped almost to the floor, as if he couldn't believe what she was saying. He thought for a way to prove if these theories were true, a method came to mind, and Ash smiled. It was time to see if this was true.

"Misty… take my hand. I need to prove if this is true.", exclaimed Ash, who had his usually goofy grin replaced with a serious, toned expression. Misty's cheeks turned bright red once she held onto his hand, but she didn't move, not wanting to back away now when the answer could be in front of her.

Ash's body glowed azure blue, signaling that he had begun using his Aura, and concentrated as he gripped Misty's hand, which strangely made Misty feel more stronger as well, and she stared in awe as he continued to focus on the power laid inside of him.

Suddenly, Misty's body started to glow a cerulean blue, and she felt as powerful as she felt in the morning, and when she was cornered at the harbor. Ash opened his eyes, and stared at her, a happy smile on his face. "Congrats, Misty. Looks like you can use Aura too.", he exclaimed.

Misty's jaw dropped in surprise, but in her mind, she didn't really think of it as that much of a surprise. She had went to the same place Ash had been, got the same fancy outfit, as well as having that same Aura glow surrounding her in the dream, and just now as well.

"And, it seems that your Aura seems to resonate with the Water Type, not like normal Aura users.", finished Ash, which snapped Misty out of her train of thought. "Well, I guess that makes sense, seeing as that I love Water-type Pokemon… ", she muttered, but then her head popped back up. "Wait. Did my eyes also change color?", she asked.

Ash looked up to make sure, and he nodded. "Yeah… they're the same color as your Aura, cerulean blue, but I figured out that you can keep your eyes their normal color, unless you're using Aura, since it turns into the color of your Aura once you start using it.", he explained, and Misty nodded.

"Wait… if my Aura resonates with Water-types, does that mean I can use Water-type moves, like you can use Fighting-type moves such as Aura Sphere?", asked Misty, but Ash just shrugged. "I'm not actually sure, but you can just try it now. Nobody's really near us anyway.", he exclaimed.

Misty then realized that she was still holding onto Ash's hand, and slowly let go of it as she stood up and looked out on the seemingly endless ocean in front of her. Misty closed her eyes and concentrated to herself, thinking of the power of the rushing waves, and she opened her eyes to find a sphere of pure water in her hands, ready to be released at a moment's notice.

The Gym Leader, feeling more powerful than ever, studied the Water Pulse that she was holding, and then threw it out into the ocean, creating a fairly large splash in the open waters. Misty was wearing an excited grin as she walked back and sat down next to Ash, who was watching in awe. "So, what do you think?", she snarked playfully as she sat down and stretched her legs, while looking out at the ocean.

"Well, you must have a lot of innate Aura reserves inside of you, since you were able to use Water Pulse right off the bat like that. Sir Aaron said that it usually takes years of training for normal Aura adepts to learn to use Aura-based attacks like that.", explained Ash, and Misty felt glad that she was able to do this so quickly.

"Wait. Do you think I should tell everyone else about this? What would they think?", asked Misty, leaving Ash to think for himself for a moment. "You can tell them whenever you want, you know. Maybe just wait until the morning, so you won't have to deal with everyone else until then.", suggested Ash.

"All right. I'll just figure it out myself.", exclaimed Misty as she looked back at Ash, and then turned to face the massive ocean in front of her. This day so far had been a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows for Misty, but the ocean view in front of her always helped her calm down and stare at its magnificence.

* * *

Ash smiled to himself as he stared at the amazing sunset in front of him. There hadn't been a cloud in the sky during the entire day, and that was especially true now, where the sky was mixed with orange and pink colors as the sun continued to go down.

He had been alone on the second deck with Misty for a few hours now, and those hours had been full of Aura, amazing views, and just nice conversations between the two longtime friends, while the others were all around the ship, doing things of their own.

Ash turned to face Misty, who was also busy staring at the breathtaking sunset in front of her, and Ash suddenly had a million thoughts and memories bouncing around his brain at once, causing him to relive them in all of their glory.

At age ten, where he felt himself being pulled out of the river by Misty and her fishing rod, and subsequently running off with her bike. Ash remembered this like it was yesterday, since it was the day he met Pikachu, along with Misty.

Twelve, when he felt himself being pulled to tears while running the whole way back to Pallet Town from the three-way intersection outside of Viridian City, not looking back to stare at Brock and especially Misty, who was biking her way back to Cerulean City, already missing her being right next to him like she had for all of his journey.

Thirteen, when he was so overjoyed to see Misty again and travel alongside her again, despite it only being for a few days in the beginning of his Battle Frontier run in Kanto, but he was still excited to see her nonetheless.

And now, at age sixteen, Ash had questioned himself about love, and even asked Brock for advice, and it finally seemed like he had some understanding about what to do with his feelings. After Serena kissed him only two weeks ago, he had realized that she had gone out of her way multiple times just to be with him, but he had never noticed that in the moment.

When Brock said that Serena probably liked him, it made sense in Ash's mind because of the way she acted around him, but he knew he didn't feel the same way towards her, and that he felt differently towards Misty than any other female friend he had traveled with.

As Ash was thinking about what Brock had said only the day before, his mind gave him a confusing answer to him. This… different feeling that he had towards Misty… was it love? Did he love Misty? The words sounded strange in his head, but feelings always had more meaning than words, in his opinion.

In the beginning of his journey, he had argued with Misty a lot, but looking back on it now, it seemed like he wanted her attention, and he often got jealous when she was with other guys such as Rudy or Danny. But one last memory struck him so hard that his mind eventually cleared up to its fullest.

Ash remembered his conversation with Max on the night before Jirachi was sent back to the Millennium Comet back in Hoenn, since he was sad that Jirachi was about to leave. Ash remembered him reassuring Max that his friends would always be a part of him, and now looking back, he realized he was talking about Misty when trying to offer a comparison of his own.

All these feelings and emotions in Ash's brain meshed together to form one gigantic conclusion, which Ash had guessed multiple times, but wasn't sure if it was true at all, as if he had been just thinking of some stupid thing that would never be real.

He loved Misty.

Normally, Ash should have felt surprised, but it all made sense in his mind. The jealousy, the fighting, the attention, and the sadness that all came with Misty coming and going throughout the past five and a half years had just made it easy for Ash to figure out, especially due to Brock's advice as well.

But, now that he figured it all out, he had to make a move. He wasn't sure if Misty liked him back or not, but he had to at least try. Ash took a deep breath, cracked his knuckles, played with his hair, and got ready for the biggest moment in his life so far.

Misty was snapped awake from her deep thoughts by Ash breathing deeply and cracking his knuckles, which was surprising, since he had been silent for a long time now. She turned to face Ash, and wondered what he was preparing for exactly.

Suddenly, it hit her like a truck. The beautiful sunset, all the time they had spent here on the deck, even holding her hand, and now preparing for the inevitable. She knew this looked like a scene straight out of the movies, but she could always hope that her dreams would come true right here.

"Misty… I just wanted to talk to you about something… ", mumbled Ash, and Misty's heart started to beat as fast as possible. Was this another dream, or was this really happening? "Okay, Ash. You can tell me anything.", she exclaimed, trying her hardest to remain calm.

Ash was silent for a few moments, then began to speak again. "During this… new journey, I've been thinking about me and my feelings… and I think it's safe to say I've figured it out.", he explained sheepishly, and Misty's heart was thundering now, a massive blush present on her cheeks.

"Figured what out, Ash?", asked Misty softly. She needed to know the true answer, and she couldn't wait any longer. The suspense was indeed killing her, and she felt high hopes of success, along with extreme dread at the same time thanks to the seemingly endless suspense Ash was giving her.

"I… I guess I like you, Misty. A lot, actually.", murmured Ash, since he didn't want to embarass himself. "I mean, I had no idea for the longest time, until I actually took Brock's advice and thought about it a lot.", he finished.

Misty was extremely surprised at this, but it was the outcome she wanted. "Well, Ash… I like you too… I always have. Ever since I pulled you out of the river five and a half years ago.", exclaimed Misty, and she watched as Ash's face changed into that of happiness, relief, but also disbelief.

"Are you sure… ? You're a Gym Leader, Misty… you could have almost anybody… why choose me over them… ", muttered Ash, but Misty shook her head softly. "You just don't get it, do you?", she asked.

Ash raised an eyebrow, not knowing what Misty was talking about. "You're the best person I've ever met, Ash, and you're so much more than any Danny or Rudy I've met out there. You're more than enough for me, and that's never going to change.", finished Misty.

Ash was motionless for a few moments, until he broke out in a happy smile. "Thanks, Mist.", he murmured softly, and Misty felt extremely happy as well since this was finally happening.

"Well… I… does this mean… ", Ash started slowly, but he was cut off by Misty, who shrugged in silence as he waited in anticipation for what would happen next.

"Just let me handle it, Ash.", exclaimed Misty as she leaned over and kissed him on the lips, leaving Ash stunned, yet he eventually gave in and embraced it, like it was the greatest feeling he'd ever felt in his life.

Misty let go of Ash after what seemed like forever, a blissful smile on her face. "Yeah, I guess we're a couple now. You wanted that, right?", she asked playfully, and Ash nodded his head in response.

"Yeah… I really did, Mist. But you better help me out here, since I'm not the best guy for this thing… ", explained Ash sheepishly, while Misty nodded and smiled brightly back at him, looking extremely relieved.

"Well, it's about time!", shouted Brock's unmistakable voice from behind them, and the newfound couple turned around to see Brock and the others standing behind them, all clapping their hands in appreciation.

"Congrats, Ash, Misty. You guys look great together!", exclaimed Dawn happily, and she seemed to share the same mood with everybody else standing in front of the new couple.

"I've never felt so happy in my entire life for you two!", exclaimed May and Iris at the same time, causing Ash and Misty to grin sheepishly at the group in front of them.

"What… how much did you see?", asked Misty, who looked defeated on the deck seats right next to Ash, while the rest of the group all had mischievous expressions on their faces.

"Pretty much all of it.", confessed Brock, prompting Misty and Ash to both glare at him and the others. "But, to be fair, it was absolutely amazing. I even wrote down notes on what I should use from this!", exclaimed the Pokemon Doctor, causing Ash, Misty, and the other teens to sweatdrop.

Ash then turned to Gary, who sighed to himself and handed Brock fifty Pokedollars in clean cash. "Here you go, man. I can't believe I actually doubted you for a second there.", muttered the Pokemon researcher as Brock gladly accepted the money.

"Wait… you guys were betting on us?", asked Ash, who looked confused yet angry at the same time, and both Gary and Brock turned to stare at him, sheepish grins on their faces. "Oh… yeah… about that… ", muttered Brock as he fidgeted with his hands.

"Whatever. I don't really care about that anyway.", exclaimed Ash, and Brock and Gary breathed a huge sigh in relief as Ash stood up from the bench, and waited for Misty to join him, but she seemed preoccupied at the moment.

Misty was surprised and happy that her friends were all here to witness this, but her mood changed drastically once she realized that Serena wasn't here with everyone else, and she reminded herself that she would have to talk to her about this whole situation soon.

"Misty? Are you going to tell them or what?", asked Ash, snapping his new girlfriend awake from her deep thoughts, and she stood up from the bench as well, then turning back to Ash. She guessed he was referring to their confession, but she was planning on telling them about her new Aura abilities as well.

Misty closed her eyes and held out her hand, concentrating for a few seconds, until she opened her eyes to see a fully formed Water Pulse in her hands, her body glowing in its cerulean blue Aura color, and the shocked faces of her friends. "A lot of weird stuff happened today, so let's get started."

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. Unknown Location. Evening.**_

"Giovanni, sir. You have an incoming call from Professor Oompa. Do you want me to forward the call to your monitor?", asked Matori, but she flinched once she heard the uncanny scream of "It's Namba!", from the other end of the call.

The Rainbow Rocket Boss smiled to himself, as he hoped that Namba had found something useful to tell him for once. "Put him through, Matori.", he exclaimed as his secretary nodded, and pressed a few keys, which sent the full screen of his head scientist onto his monitor.

"Giovanni, sir. My team and I have found a good strategy to take advantage of the light that our subject desires, after a few hours of testing and planning.", exclaimed Namba, and the Rainbow Rocket Boss nodded. "All right. What do you propose we do?", he asked.

Professor Namba picked up a nearby notebook from a desk, and began to read off it. "Our latest light tests have shown that it tends to absorb all the light in any organism, seemingly growing stronger as a result. So my team decided to do some research, and it seems that the source with the largest amount of light… are places where Legendary Pokemon reside or tend to visit.", he explained.

Giovanni's face clearly turned into a smile, as he was pleased by this news. "So, where do you want to go to access this light? What places do you have in mind?", he asked, and Namba brought out another notepad while he was speaking, and once he was done, the scientist began to read again.

"Well, you captured some of this light when you visited Shamouti Island and captured Articuno, which is more than enough for that one place. But there are many other places in all six regions where the light is present, and where we can go take it and let the subject absorb it.", exclaimed Namba.

"Good. But how will you be able to control the subject?", asked the Rainbow Rocket Boss, and Namba brought out a third notepad and began to read off it, causing Giovanni to wonder how much notes his head scientist had taken during one day of testing.

"Well, my team and I have discussed developing my personal Rage Crowns to contain the light source, so the subject can feed off the light whenever it desires, and be controlled like a mindless slave of sorts. I was hoping for your opinion on this process before we officially get started.", explained Professor Namba.

Giovanni smiled wickedly as he stared at Namba's notes on the call feed. "That plan is excellent, so I suggest you get started right away on those Rage Crowns. I want my subject to be controlled that way, so it doesn't turn on us and unleash its wrath.", exclaimed the Rocket Boss.

As Giovanni hung up from the call, he pressed another button on his desk, which sent the wall behind him up into the ceiling, revealing a large, hollow cylindrical chamber, where Giovanni stood up and walked towards his chair, where he faced his fellow RR Admins.

"Gentlemen, I come bringing exciting news. For the past few weeks, you five have been here in the base, doing nothing important, but I have a new solution, that being Phase Three of Project RR.", exclaimed the Rainbow Rocket Boss to the rest of his council.

"You five will scour the regions of Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos, while my Executives take Kanto and Johto, for the light of the Legendary Pokemon, which my Blinding One so desperately desires. Do you understand your task?", asked Giovanni, and the others to nod in understanding.

"Sir, what happens if we fail to complete your tasks?", asked a nasally voice from the other end of the room, prompting Giovanni to face him menacingly. "Then that will be the cause of your untimely death, Maximilian.", he laughed wickedly.

"We will not fail, Giovanni. I can assure you, we will do everything in our power to gain this… light and please you.", exclaimed a deep voice from the chamber right next to the Rainbow Rocket Boss, and he smiled wickedly as he spread his arms out wide.

"With your help, this organization will rise against any meaningless hope the G-Men have, and we will be the ones ruling this world with the help of the Blinding One!", exclaimed Giovanni as he laughed like a maniac.

He knew he sounded crazy, but you had to be a little insane to eventually rule the world.

* * *

 _ **December 13, 2002. Unknown Location. Night.**_

A man was sitting on the small bed of his small house, meditating silently while closing his eyes. His mind was cleared from the usual stress that the world had been through for the past few weeks, and he was glad to get away from it all at least twice a day.

Suddenly, he felt two extremely strong presences enter his mind, which sent him out of his focus, and his eyes shot open while he collapsed to the floor in shock. His trusted Pokemon went over to help him up, but he managed to get up and lie back down on his bed on his own.

He took some time to think about those presences in his mind, and who exactly they belonged to. "They're really strong… whoever those two are, they both must be a Chosen… ", he muttered, and the Pokemon nodded its head as well.

Suddenly, the man's mind was reminded of something from a long time ago, a specific presence that he thought he would never see again, but that one had just appeared to him right now, along with another oddly specific one.

The man turned to his Pokemon, who also nodded its head in understanding. He shrugged in response, than laid back down on his bed, ready to retire for the night, but not before he thought more about the strangely familiar presence in his mind.

"Not bad, kid."

* * *

So, Ash and Misty finally got together! Don't worry, I will have Serena eventually confront Misty about it, but you'll have to wait to see that happen later on in the story. I actually planned this chapter to be shorter than normal, since our main characters are on a ship the whole time, but it actually turned out to be a pretty long chapter by my standards.

As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	15. XIV - Wishful Thinking

**I'm back, everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but I was busy these past few weeks and I could only finish the chapter as early as today. Either way, I think that this chapter is worth the wait, and I hope you enjoy it too.  
**

 **Here's one review response, then onto the story.**

 **Sea: Thank you for the support! I know it seems stupid for them to not get noticed wearing clothes like that, and I will address that in one of the next few chapters.**

* * *

 **The Eighteen  
**

Chapter XIV

Wishful Thinking

* * *

 _ **December 18, 2002. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

Lance couldn't concentrate.

Ever since that interview with the news a few days earlier, all he could think about was that picture that the interviewer showed him and asked him about. The anchor said that those people's faces had been blurred to protect themselves from the press on their own choice, but that was normal for him, since some people on the news chose to have their names removed or pictures blurred to protect themselves.

But that wasn't what was bothering him. The weird thing about those blurred faces, was that those people looked eerily familiar to him, and that was what had startled him back on the interview a few days ago. Lance hadn't told any of his fellow Champions about his suspicions, but he knew they watched the news report, and they must have thought of their own reasons and suspicions as well as to what was going on.

He stood up from his desk, shut off his computer, and walked towards the other Champions, who were all hanging out in the so-called living room on the second floor of Professor Oak's Laboratory, and he slumped down on an open couch seat as he walked in.

"So? Any new updates for the day?", asked Wallace.

As he said that, he lazily turned to face Lance from the other side of the couch, making him back away from the Top Coordinator's horrendous pizza breath.

"Uh… yeah. No activity for the most part, besides some Grunts leaving Kanto, but we couldn't trace their signals past the southern border.", exclaimed Lance, noticing perplexing expressions from his colleagues after he finished speaking.

"So they went towards the southern border…"murmured Cynthia under her breath.

"Only things down there are the Orange Islands, and a few other island chains… "she finished, until her eyes shot up in surprise and excitement.

"That's it! Petrel said the base was on an island, and with the Rainbow Rockets heading south, it can only mean one thing. Their base is on an island, south of the mainland! This is perfect!"", shouted Cynthia enthusiastically.

"It can't be that easy, Cynthia,'' interrupted Diantha quickly.

"We can't just scour surrounding islands to the south just to find their base. We have to find more information before we go all out and search every place down south.", finished the Kalos Champion.

"But it's so close! The base is right in front of us, and we're ignoring it! How come!", wailed Alder. He had been silent for most of the conversation up until now, and the other Champions flinched at his loud yelling.

"Diantha's right. We can't rush in, since we'll be absolutely crushed if we do so without a good plan. So we have to find more information about where the base is, and how we can approach it without a good strategy, so we have to think of one first.", chimed Steven.

"True, and we don't know exactly where the base is. We should first look for details where exactly the base is first, and then search for nearby areas before making a full-on assault.", finished Lance, and the other Champions seemed to all be in agreement on that last statement.

"Fine. But is there anywhere we can look to find more information besides talking to Petrel? The guy is so good at lying, I can't stand it!", exclaimed Cynthia as she flopped down on the couch, obviously still frustrated about her remaining options, which all left a sour taste in her mouth.

Lance put a hand onto his chin in a classic thinking pose, wondering about his possible options. He could stay in Pallet and keep talking to Petrel, or find more information by leaving the town, and there were a few spots he remembered that were supposed to be crawling with information about Rainbow Rocket.

"Well, there is one place we could go."

 _ **December 19, 2002. Hoenn Region - In the Sky**_

The massive chopper flew under the clouds en route to its final stop in Hoenn, its matte black logoless body helping it remain sleek and covert above the seemingly empty ocean. The large helicopter was relatively full, with a team of Rainbow Rocket Grunts and two RR Admins manning the chopper as it flew towards Hoenn.

"All right, scamps! I have orders from Giovanni that we're supposed to take all of Hoenn's waters and search for locations of Legendary Pokemon! You got that!", exclaimed a man that was decked out in a black bandanna with the RR logo on it, a black collared jacket and black pants, all having blue undertones and RR symbols to show his rank of Admin.

The Grunts gave a salute, and the man nodded his head. "Good. But remember, Hoenn is 78 percent water, so we have to move fast in the amount of time we have!", he exclaimed, and the Grunts nodded their heads and went back to making preparations for their mission, while the man stood and smiled wickedly, excited for the task at hand.

"Oh, please, Archibald,'' came a voice from the other side of the chopper, causing the man to scowl at the person who just walked in.

He had slicked-back red hair and was wearing a black coat, black pants, black boots, and glasses, with red undertones and RR symbols to show his Admin rank as well as the first Admin in the chopper.

"You know as well as I do that Hoenn's borders cannot include seventy-eight percent water, since if you do the required mathematical equations-", stated the man, while pushing his glasses up and making them shine because of the light reflecting off of them. but the first Admin, now revealed to be Archie, formerly of Team Aqua, cut him off before he could finish his explanation.

"Will you shut up already, Maxie!", cried Archie, extremely impatient with his colleague's long-winding scientific explanations.

"You've already got it easy, since there's so much more water in Hoenn than land! I have to Surf with sixty men and try not to be spotted by travelers!", shouted the RR Admin.

"Let's just concentrate on the mission at hand, Archie,'' retorted Maxie as he crossed his arms and scowled at his colleague, who also looked frustrated towards him.

"Although my team and I have the landscape of Hoenn as a disguise, I believe that Giovanni had sent you an RR submarine, did he not?", asked Maxie, who was back to acting like his usual geeky self.

Archie's widened at the thought. "A submarine? Giovanni never told me anything about that! This will be perfect!", shouted the newly appointed RR Admin enthusiastically,

Archie's face then turned into that of confusion and anger. "Wait a minute! Why didn't Giovanni tell me about the submarine, but he told you instead?", he asked, confused as to why he wasn't alerted of this.

"Well, Giovanni had read your bio, and he could tell from there that you can… get reckless with those kinds of things sometimes, so he just told me to tell you.", confessed Maxie, and it almost looked like smoke was coming out of Archie's ears due to how angry he looked.

"I do not get reckless, ya scamp! I could have been fine with that submarine if Giovanni had told me about it!", shouted Archie, but Maxie just shrugged and pressed a button on the helicopter, which caused part of the wall to slide open, revealing a passage that Archie guessed led to the submarine.

"All right, ya little scamps, we're heading out!", explained Archie as his team of RR Grunts walked through the opening and towards the hidden submarine, ready to be dismounted into the depths of Route 105 to begin their mission.

Maxie felt the helicopter drop more towards the water and the sound of the bottom hull opening up to reveal a sleek RR submarine, which was safely put into the waters on Route 108 and sunk to the depths of the ocean, ready to embark on its task.

"Maxie, sir! We've scanned the main landmass for Legendary Pokemon habitats, and the closest one doesn't seem to be too far from here!`` exclaimed one of Maxie's Grunts as he handed the RR Admin a sheet of paper, which Maxie read carefully.

"Near Mt. Chimney… Northwest of Lavaridge Town… interesting… ", muttered Maxie, and he faced towards the RR Grunt with a wicked grin on his face, about to enter a maniacal laughing it.

"This is perfect! I just need to make some last-minute adjustments, but tell whoever's flying this thing to stop at this location.", he finished as the Grunt nodded and gave a salute, while walking into the cockpit to alert the pilot.

Maxie continued to read the paper the Grunt had given him, catching up on the information that was written on the paper. According to the report, this Legendary habitat was relatively isolated, so it would be easy to sneak in, and that the Legendary Pokemon residing in it was weak along with the other Pokemon in the area, so it would be easy to collect enough light energy for Giovanni.

It was just Maxie and his Grunts as they prepared for their new mission, while Archie and his team swam through the depths. He wouldn't fail Giovanni in his assigned mission, and he knew his tactical strategies would pave the way for success in this region.

* * *

 _ **December 19, 2002. Hoenn Region - Unmarked Location**_

" _Goooooood morning, Hoenn! I'm John Johnson, and you're listening to Hoenn's finest, HBS News, 103.2! Be prepared for a scorcher, since we're expecting a high of eighty-seven degrees today!"_

Ritchie was comforted by the sound of Brock's portable radio as he sat down in the middle of the campsite, surrounded by wilderness and a bunch of tents. He was the first one up and ready to go, and the others were still busy sleeping in their tents or getting ready inside.

"Hey, Ritchie! How come you're up so early?", came a shout from behind him, and Ritchie turned around to see Cilan walk over and sit down next to him, while Ritchie twiddled with a rock in his hands.

"I don't know, I'm usually an early riser. Probably from all those mornings training with my Pokemon.", explained Ritchie with a slight shrug.

"You shouldn't be ashamed. That's a great way to bond and get stronger with your Pokemon, and coming from an A-Class Connoisseur, the best advice I can give you is to keep on-"

"Will you cut that out? Cilan, you don't have to bore anybody else to death with your 'evaluation time' stuff, you know!`` shouted Iris from behind them, and Cilan and Ritchie turned around to see the self-proclaimed Dragon Master walk up towards them.

"I know, Iris, but I just wanted to help Ritchie out over here! Anyone could use some advice in their lives, whether they need it or not.", defended Cilan, as he held up his arms to try and protect himself from Iris's potential wrath.

Iris grunted, and tilted her head off to the side. "Whatever. I was just making sure Ritchie wasn't bored to death, that's all.", she exclaimed as she sat down next to Cilan and Ritchie, and sighed to herself.

Ritchie turned to Cilan and just shrugged to the Pokemon Connoisseur in silence. "Sorry about that. I guess Iris can get a little angry sometimes.", interrupted Cilan while glancing at the silent Ritchie, who was just staring down at the ground.

"It's fine, honestly. Don't worry about it, Cilan. But I do kind of want to listen to the radio.", confessed Ritchie as he continued to sit down on the ground while Cilan and Iris sat next to him, remaining silent.

" _And our next caller is Gabe from Slateport City! Gabe, what do you think about the events in Vermillion City from a few days ago?", exclaimed_ the show host through the radio, and Ritchie's eyebrows perked up in surprise as he leaned in closer to listen carefully.

" _Well, when I saw the news, the reporters told everyone that there were these people in disguises that helped stop Rainbow Rocket. I know they must have a reason for keeping their identity a secret, but we should be thanking them for what they did.", exclaimed_ the caller.

" _Thank you, Gabe. From what most people are saying, these heroes in hiding have helped out against Team Rainbow Rocket, and whatever their sinister plans are. I hope we'll see more of them in the future, as they could be a big help."_ , finished the show host as the calling segment came to an end.

Ritchie turned his head to face Iris and Cilan, who were sharing similar expressions of surprise, and some faint pride as well. "That was… interesting, to say the least,'' he mumbled, and the two Unovan trainers seemingly felt the same way.

"I know. I can't believe we got on the news!", exclaimed Iris in somewhat of a shock.

"This might still be a problem.", exclaimed Cilan, cutting off Iris from continuing her last sentence. "People might be on the lookout for us and they would want to know where we are and who we are, so we should be careful about that.", finished the Pokemon Connoisseur.

"Point taken."answered Ritchie, who understood the consequences Cilan had played out for them if they weren't careful with their actions and identities. The Pokemon Connoisseur nodded in encouragement, but he was soon distracted by something else.

Cilan turned his head to see Iris staring away from him and Ritchie, her eyes focused on what was unfurling in front of her. He could see that something was going on in one of the tents, and that was what Iris was staring at, but he didn't know what exactly was happening, and from the looks of it, neither did Ritchie.

The three watched as the tent door was quickly unzipped, and as what looked like Max raced out of the tent and began running in the opposite direction, away from the campsite and the rest of the group. Iris, Cilan, and Ritchie watched as he looked frantically at his surroundings, and began to run off again.

"What the-Max! Get back here!", shouted May's voice as she climbed out of the tent, and began running after her brother. Shortly after, Drew walked out of the tent, panting, and walked over to Iris, Cilan, and Ritchie, who were still confused as to what just happened.

"Damn… that kid's fast… '' muttered Drew, who looked clearly exhausted while leaning on Cilan for support, and the three spectators waited patiently for him to continue.

"He just ran out of there like a bullet… '' mumbled the Pokemon Coordinator as the rest of the group started to come out of their tents, wondering about the commotion.

"All right, what's going on out here?", asked Misty, who was holding Ash's hand as they both exited their tent, with Brock following shortly after, a concerned look on his face.

She was wearing a navy blue tunic with an Aura Guardian symbol on it, black pants, and blue gloves and blue boots, which all seemed to be part of the same outfit, while Ash came out wearing the Aura Guardian outfit he had received a week or so ago.

"I don't know why, but Max ran out of his tent like a speeding bullet.", answered Ritchie.

"Something might have worried him to make him to something like that, but I really have no idea.", finished the brown-haired Pokemon trainer, and Ash nodded in understanding.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go get him!`` exclaimed Ash as he started to run in the direction that Max and May had ran off to, and the others followed suit soon after, staggering behind Ash as he ran in search of the youngest member of the group.

Max panted with each breath as he continued to run, his sister chasing after him from a distance. He didn't care if he needed to stay with the rest of the group and be with them, since right now, he had to do something important, and that required leaving everyone else behind and going alone, only for the moment. He knew his sister and his friends wouldn't understand the obligation he had to fulfill at that moment, and since they didn't understand three and a half years ago, he doubted they would understand his reasons now, and that was why Max continued to run far away from the others. Max realized that he would be completely exhausted soon, and so he stopped short and hid behind a tree to catch his breath and avoid the others at the same time. He peeked his head out from behind the trunk to see May racing up the path, and he could see the rest of them following suit behind her. Max sighed to himself, knowing that it would be hard to get out of the clutches of his friends, but he knew from the bottom of his heart that he had to keep going and do this. "How am I going to get them to not see me?", muttered Max to himself, obviously stressed, yet determined at the same time.

Suddenly, Max saw an narrow and bumpy path through the cluster of trees to his right, and seeing his chance, he bolted from behind the tree into the pathway, disappearing quickly into the trees, and away from the rest of the group. As the path became narrower and the trees became closer together, it started to become darker, since the trees were blocking out the sunlight. Nevertheless, Max kept running down the bumpy dirt path, as determined as ever to keep going and fulfill his promise. Max continued to run as fast as he could, until he felt himself being stuck, almost as if he couldn't move and was being held by some Psychic-type Pokemon. He then felt himself being pulled backwards, and he was dropped down to the ground in front of the others, almost back where he started.

As he stood up, Max noticed Gary congratulating his Umbreon, and he realized that the Pokemon researcher must have commanded Umbreon to use Psychic, bringing him back to the rest of the group. However, Max didn't have time to say anything, as his sister rushed up and wrapped him in a giant Ursaring hug.

May's expression soon changed into that of extreme anger and worry, leaving Max afraid for his life. "Now, just what made you think you could just ditch us like that?! I was so worried about you!", exclaimed Max's older sister, tears streaming down her face in joy and relief.

Max's face turned into an angry scowl. They didn't understand before, so what would have changed now? He was determined not to tell her and the others why, but he did have some second thoughts. His sister did care for him a lot, and he appreciated it a lot as well, but he just wasn't sure if they would know and understand his pain.

Ash walked over to Max as May let go of him, and he knelt down while putting a hand on Max's shoulder. "Max… what exactly happened back there?", asked Ash tenderly. As Max stared into Ash's helping eyes, he was reminded of the talk that the two of them shared three and a half years earlier, and he knew Ash had understood what Max had felt back then, so he knew he could understand what he was feeling now.

"I… I saw… I heard it. I heard her, Ash! She needed help, and you know I had to help her out! You know that!", cried Max, and Ash's eyes widened for a moment, before nodding his head in realization and understanding. "I know, Max. But you shouldn't go on alone. We've all got your back here.", Ash exclaimed, and Max nodded his head, his face down in shame.

"I know, Ash… but they won't understand! They don't know!", wailed Max as he sobbed into Ash's arms, while May and Brock's eyes widened in shock. They turned towards each other, both having their distinct suspicions as to why Max was so upset at the moment.

"Do you think… '' asked May in shock, and Brock crossed his arms.

"I'm not sure… but it's a possibility,'' muttered the Pokemon Doctor, and May turned back to her brother, who was still being consoled by Ash. May ran over to Max, and Brock soon followed, ready to support him along with Ash.

"Max… we understand too. We'll always have your back, no matter what.", reassured May, and her little brother looked up to face her, tears in his eyes. Brock nodded towards him as well, acknowledging his support for the young Trainer.

"Wait a minute!", exclaimed Barry, completely ruining the suspense and interrupting a tender moment between the Hoenn group.

"You haven't told anyone else here what the hell you're talking about! We want to at least know what's going on!", exclaimed the impatient Sinnoh trainer as he crossed his arms.

"We want to help too, but the least you four could do would be telling us what's even remotely occurring here!"shouted Gary, slipping into his researcher vocabulary at the end there, while he and the rest of the group stared at the four, incredibly impatient by this point in time.

Max took a deep breath and stood up slowly, closing his eyes briefly before turning to the rest of the group, who all looked annoyed that so much time had been wasted over this, but Max knew all the time spent this morning was all worth it in the end.

"I heard her… she needed help. That's why I ran out.", murmured Max, which left the others besides Ash, Brock, and May feeling even more confused than ever before that morning. "Heard what? What did you hear?", asked Leaf intensely, worried that something bad could be going on where they were.

"Jirachi."

 _ **December 19, 2002. Unova Region - Striaton City**_

Cress opened up his X-Transceiver, and sighed once he reached the top news stories. These so-called Hooded Heroes had been blowing up on social media for the first five days, and the amount of conspiracy theories since then had also increased tenfold since their first appearance worldwide on seemingly every news network five days earlier.

He couldn't count the amount of times he or Chili was mentioned in said conspiracy theories, since many people were guessing that these mysterious figures were the eighteen kids that had been presumed dead in that attack on Indigo Plateau in Kanto. In his opinion, these theories had some sense to it, but there was one big flaw.

Despite the blurred faces being present in the now-viral image, Cress could still count 19 bodies in the photo, which put a dent in an otherwise plausible theory that many other people online agreed with, or so he seemed.

Cress was snapped out of his thoughts by a voice from the other side of the room. "Cress! It's time for your shift!`` yelled his brother Chili as he and his Pansear walked back towards their room for the night. It had been hard for the two brothers to coordinate restaurant shifts ever since Cilan died, but they had found a way to make it work.

Cress sent out his Panpour, and the two of them walked towards the restaurant portion of the Striaton City Gym, which served as a house, a Gym, and a restaurant in total. He briskly walked over to the table he was supposed to serve, and prepared himself for another lunch shift.

" _Now, many of our viewers have been asking us to review the famous 'Hooded Heroes' photo that has been trending online ever since its release, showing many figures helping out in Vermillion City at the time of the harbor incident there a few days ago."_ , exclaimed the news anchor for the Unova Broadcasting System news network, snapping Cress out of his mojo and forcing him to look at the TV screen in interest.

" _Our photo analysts in our studio have unfortunately been unable to enhance the image, and somebody could have put encrypted software that prevents anyone from enhancing the photo._ "exclaimed the anchor, and Cress sighed to himself at his incompetence.

He knew that if he kept getting false hope that his brother was still alive, then it would be snatched away in an instant by the inevitable realization that Cilan was truly dead and was never coming back, and that's what he wanted to prevent with every cell of his body, and he hoped Chili would come to accept those terms as well.

Cress took a deep breath, and went back to his table, where the person he was supposed to be serving had a shared look of annoyance, but sympathy at the same time. "I-I'm sorry about that. I was just… carried away by something.", stammered Cress as he handed out a menu, pushing his long blue hair away from his wistful eyes.

Cress practically fell onto the couch in his room, ready to relax since his shift had ended for the day. Although he just wanted to watch some TV for the next few hours, he continued to be distracted by the news report from earlier in the day.

If those "Hooded Heroes" in the photo actually turned out to be Eighteen, as people were referring to them now, then everything would have been solved, and it would lead to a happily ever after, which was completely unrealistic and most likely impossible to happen, since there already were nineteen bodies shown in the picture.

All Cress wanted was to make sure he didn't have any false hope, so it wouldn't be taken away from him when the inevitable truth would reveal itself to the public that the Eighteen were confirmed to be dead. He knew it would mean that he would have to be as pessimistic as possible for him to feel that way, but he knew it would prevent a soul-crushing emotional defeat in the long run.

Cress stood up from his couch and walked over to Chili's room, where he saw his brother on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, sadly, and he didn't notice Cress as he walked towards him and sat down on his bed, trying to lend a helpful hand.

"Chili… how've ya been?", asked Cress softly, but his brother didn't respond, still sitting in his bed, his facial expression showing his sadness at the moment.

"Come on, Chili. You can't be this depressed forever!`` shouted Cress, but he watched as his brother slowly sat up on his bed, his face still full of regret and tiredness.

"I know I can't be like this forever, Cress, but… with Cilan gone… I don't know what to do anymore. It's… like a part of me is gone… that's what, ``muttered the usually optimistic Chili, but right now he sounded like a completely different person with his extreme guilt and depression at that time.

"I understand, Chili, but you have to accept that Cilan's gone eventually, or else you'll suffer even worse later on.", explained Cress, but his brother shook his head fervently.

"I can't do that! I can't accept he's really gone. Cilan has to still be out there, somewhere!`` shouted Chili, refusing to accept his brother's ideas.

"But, Chili! If you have false hope, and it turns out that Cilan's really dead, then you'll just suffer even worse than you are now!`` exclaimed Cress, and Chili stared into his brother's desperate eyes in shock, surprised at the fierce tone they held.

Chili laid back down on his bed, unsure of what to do. "Yeah… but I just can't accept the fact that Cilan's really gone! I just can't! I can't act like that, because I still have hope!`` cried the hot-headed Gym Leader as he screamed in Cress's face, refusing to give up his hope to Cress's ideals.

"Fine. We each have our own beliefs and ideas, but you're still my brother, and I'm not going to stop you from believing what you want.", confessed Cress.

Chili nodded his head in understanding. "It's kind of weird, you know. I'm the hot-headed one who won't give up my beliefs, you're the pessimistic one who takes the bad way in the situation-"

"I'm not that pessimistic! I'm just trying to prevent myself from suffering even more in the future, that's all!", explained Cress, but Chili just shrugged and laid his arms on the bed.

"We are triplets, but we each have different beliefs. But, I wonder what Cilan would do if one of us… was… gone, you know.", exclaimed the fire-type Gym Leader, his hands on his face in a thinking pose.

"What would Cilan do? I don't know… ", muttered Cress to himself, and he was silent for a moment before responding to his brother again.

"Well, he always was a balance of our two personalities, so maybe he wouldn't go to two extremes, like us, and balance his feelings out on parts of both extreme emotions.", finished the Water-type Gym Leader.

Chili took a moment to process what Cress had said, until responding with a look of realization on his face. "Well, maybe we should follow Cilan's advice, then. We should still have hope, but eventually we have to accept some form of resolution.", he explained, and Cress nodded his head in understanding.

Mourning was supposed to be different for everyone who had to experience it, but maybe it was too early to resort to extreme emotions just yet for Cress and Chili. They would just have to wait and see if new truths would develop, which in turn could lead to new feelings and emotions about Cilan's presumed death.

 _ **December 19, 2002. Hoenn Region - Unmarked Location**_

"Jirachi? Are you serious?", asked Paul in disbelief, and the others seemed to share similar expressions of disbelief and shock.

They seriously doubted that anyone here could have seen Jirachi, as it was rumored to only awake once every thousand years, but Ash, Max, May, and Brock looked incredibly sure of themselves.

"I'm serious. I guess it still remembers me after what happened three and a half years ago.", explained Max, who sounded incredibly serious for a rookie trainer who had only started his journey back in April. The others' eyes widened, as they could see the validity of Max's statement in his eyes.

"All right. Now that everything's set straight, we have to make our way towards Forina. We're pretty close to it already, but we should start now if we want to keep going, since it'll take at least a couple of hours to get there.", explained Brock, as he looked at his Pokegear and started walking in the direction of Forina.

The rest of the group followed Brock quickly as they packed all their stuff up and walked on the path that supposedly led towards the location of Jirachi's homeland, where it goes to once released from the Millenium Comet every one thousand years, and the group seemed excited to embark on this new quest. They were walking at a remotely faster pace because of the urgency Max described when hearing Jirachi's plea. According to Max, Jirachi had said that the threat would come later in the day, but the group wanted to get to Forina faster so they could stop the threat before it caused any damage.

"Ash! Did you really see Jirachi a few years ago? You've gotta tell us!", asked Trip, who seemed really interested to learn more about this Legendary Pokemon that he had never really heard about until today, and from the looks of it, the rest of the group seemed as interested as Trip at the moment.

"Well, the Millenium Comet had landed in Hoenn, and there was some sort of 'Millenium Festival' to commemorate it. We found Jirachi from a crystal that was in the Millennium Comet, and Max had really appreciated having it around.", explained Ash.

"Turns out, we also had to stop a mad scientist from creating a tentacle-infused Groudon, and from capturing Jirachi to use its power. Eventually, we returned Jirachi to its homeland in Forina, but we had to say goodbye at the end. Just a normal Tuesday for us, I guess!", exclaimed Ash sheepishly.

Most of the others turned towards Ash and stared at him in shock, surprised that he referred to an amazing experience like that as just a regular weekday for him and his friends, but a few of them just looked at each other, smirks on their faces.

"It is like any other day for you, Ash. I've gone through at least eight of these same situations, including this one with Jirachi! I'd like to think that Ash is just a magnet for Legendary Pokemon, and they all just come to him and us, since hang around him and all.", explained Brock.

Ash raised an eyebrow at Brock's last statement, and a look of realization came onto his face. Being the Chosen One meant that he did have to save Legendary Pokemon that were in need, but he never figured that he was some sort of magnet that attracted Legendaries as well.

"What can I say? I'm a lucky guy, that's all.", Ash said.

"Yeah, lucky enough to save an Arceus a few thousand years in the past! Ash, I have to admit, you are extremely lucky with Legendary Pokemon encounters. Hell, I've seen a Darkrai, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Arceus, Shaymin, and even Entei, Raikou, and Suicune all while traveling with you!`` exclaimed Dawn, almost in disbelief.

"Wait a minute. I met you in April of 2001, and you left Sinnoh around ten months later. You mean to tell me that you met nine Legendary Pokemon, including the creator of the universe, all in ten months? That's insane!`` exclaimed Paul, his hands on his head in disbelief.

"And for those ten months I thought you were a weak trainer with weak Pokemon… boy, was I wrong.", muttered the Veilstone trainer.

Misty walked over to Ash, and started holding his hand. "Well, that's all normal when you're around Ash, of course. He always manages to get himself involved in a conflict with Legendary Pokemon at least… let's say three times per region.`` exclaimed the Cerulean Gym Leader, while Ash just grinned sheepishly.

"Ashy-boy, I have never met a single Legendary Pokemon in all of my years of research, and the second I go with you here, I've already seen a live Mew, and now you're saying something about a Jirachi! There must be something else besides dumb luck in there.", exclaimed Gary.

Ash raised an eyebrow, surprised at how quickly the puzzle was solved by his friends. He really wanted to tell them about his role as the Chosen One, but he knew they would all think it was his fault for dragging them into this mess, and he didn't want to risk that happening to him or his friends.

Misty noticed that Ash seemed to be in some sort of inner conflict, and she was about to ask him what was wrong, until a familiar voice rang in her head. _"Let's just talk here, Misty,''_ exclaimed Ash's voice inside her head, causing Misty to whirl around and look at the others frantically, trying to find the source of the voice.

" _Calm down, Mist. It's just me, Ash._ ", exclaimed the voice, and Misty breathed a sigh of relief, but before panicking again and glaring at her boyfriend suspiciously. "How the hell are you doing that!", she asked, her teeth grit together in frustration as Ash turned to face her, a blank expression on his face.

" _I'm just speaking to you through Aura. You can do it too, you know.",_ exclaimed Ash's voice, and Misty's eyes widened in surprise.

"How? How do I do that? And more importantly, how did you manage to know how to do that?`` asked Misty, who looked extremely intrigued by this new phenomenon.

" _Sir Aaron did give me some of his knowledge on Aura and how it works, so that's how I know how to do this. All you have to do is concentrate, focus on my Aura, and think.",_ explained Ash in her mind, and Misty nodded her head in understanding.

"Seems easy enough… here goes!", muttered Misty to herself as she closed her eyes and concentrated on her thoughts. A dim cerulean blue glow formed around Misty as she took deep breaths, focusing on her Aura as well.

 _"Is it working?"_ , she thought, hoping that Ash would hear her.

" _Yeah! I can hear you, Mist. Loud and clear. Just keep doing what you're doing now to keep talking."_ , encouraged Ash, and Misty had a smile on her face as she opened her eyes and smiled at him, but what was even more surprising was how she still felt focused, and it felt much easier to use Aura to speak after that first hurdle.

" _So, what exactly happened back there? People figuring out your secrets?"_ , asked Misty, and Ash stared back at her with a stern expression on his face.

With a facial expression like that, Misty immediately knew this was a tough issue for Ash. _"You don't have to tell me everything, you know. Just tell me as much as you want to."_

" _I don't know if I should tell them, Misty. They'll just think I dragged them into this whole mess with Rainbow Rocket because they were after the Chosen One."_ , exclaimed Ash, and Misty hesitated for a moment before resuming her telepathic conversation.

" _Yeah, but if the bad guys know about it and your friends don't, isn't that worse than the other way around?"_ asked Misty, and Ash raised an eyebrow in response. He had never thought of his current situation in that sort of way, and he was immediately glad that Misty was able to bring a second opinion onto the table and set him straight.

" _You do have a point there, Mist… but I'm still not sure. I'll consider telling them when the time is right, but for right now… I don't know._ ", finished Ash, who seemed content with his choice for the moment. Misty nodded her head, acknowledging her full support of her boyfriend's decision.

"Has anybody told you two that you both are so cute together? It's driving me insane!", exclaimed Brock, which snapped Ash and Misty out of their thoughts, ending their focus and concentration to hold up their Aura bond.

The Pokemon Doctor then fell on the floor in grief, startling the people walking next to him. "Why can't I ever have such luck in my life!"he cried , prompting the rest of the group to back away in fear.

"Don't worry, Brock-o. You'll find somebody, someday.", reassured Gary.

His attention turned to Ash and Misty, who were continuing to be silent and ignoring the rest of the others.

"And as for you, what's with the silent treatment? You're acting like you two are in your own world over there.", exclaimed Gary, and Ash let go of Misty's hand to face the Pokemon Researcher.

"Well, that's just one of the perks of talking using Aura. You don't even have to move your mouth one inch!", said Ash, and Misty nodded her head, providing more validity to Ash's claim.

"I guess that makes sense.", muttered Gary to himself, while Ash and Misty let go of each other's hands and started talking with the rest of the group.

Brock was woken up from his thoughts by Max, who almost seemed to be tugging on his clothes in impatience.

"Brock! How much longer to Forina!", he cried, wanting to know when they would arrive to help Jirachi out.

The Pokemon Doctor noticed Max and heard his question, and so Brock opened up his PokeGear, and found his location on the regional map. "Well, from the looks of it, we're pretty close. We only have around an hour or so left.", explained Brock.

"Well, then what are we waiting for! We still have to help Jirachi, so we shouldn't be walking here. Let's move!", exclaimed Max with determination as he began to run ahead of the others, who were startled by his incredible speed.

Brock and the others saw Max start to run ahead, and they began to pick up speed themselves, following Max's lead and heading towards Forina, Jirachi, and any possible threats that could stand in their way.

* * *

 _ **December 19, 2002. Kanto Region - Viridian City**_

"You sure this is the place?", asked Wallace as he walked up the steps outside the Viridian City Gym, noticing the cracks in the main building and the grass that had grown between the floor tiles, which showed the building's aging foundation.

"I'm more than sure. This was Giovanni's personal Pokemon Gym, and for a while, a main Team Rocket Base. There's got to be something we can find in here that can lead us to Giovanni's current location, ``explained Lance as he followed Wallace up the steps. Cynthia, Diantha, and Alder had all stayed behind to talk to Petrel some more, while Lance, Wallace, and Steven had gone to the Viridian City Gym to maybe find more information about Giovanni's plans and where the main Rainbow Rocket base was located.

"Well, either way, this place is still a dump. If it was abandoned, then how could anything be left behind? Wouldn't Giovanni do damage control to make sure no secrets were left here?", asked Steven, but Lance shook his head.

"The Gym was abandoned in a haste shortly before it was destroyed by a Gym Battle, where some Grunts took charge of Giovanni's Pokemon temporarily and battled against an unknown trainer at least three months before the 1998 Indigo League.", explained the Indigo Champion. "A few years back we repaired it and gave the Gym to Agatha for some training, but less people showed up, and we just decided to leave it closed out here.", finished Lance as he turned around to face Wallace and Steven, who now seemed to understand Lance's points of view.

Lance walked up to the double doors, and to his surprise, found it was unlocked. He then pushed open the door and walked inside the Gym, shortly followed by Wallace and Steven, eager to explore this abandoned site for any tips on where Giovanni was and what he was doing. The trio walked inside and reached the main battlefield, which had optional elevated Trainer boxes, but the most surprising part was located on the other side of the battlefield. There was a tall wall on the other side, with what looked to be a balcony on top.

Lance then led Wallace and Steven to the other side of the battlefield, towards a flight of stairs in the back of the Gym. Once they reached the top, they came across an office or some sorts, with a chair, a big desk, and a balcony view of the Gym battlefield. Steven walked towards the desk, which had many layers of dust on it over years of abandonment. It had empty slots for spare Pokeballs, a notepad, a pencil, and more office supplies. He then turned his attention to the sets of drawers, with two located on each side of the desk. They each turned out to have pretty much nothing, with some unused Earth Badges, a Gym win/loss record sheet, and a half-filled file for repair on the Gym, dated April 1998.

As Steven opened up the last drawer, he found some documents with faint scribbles on them, showing some sort of armor to go on a Pokemon. He was surprised, since he couldn't tell what Pokemon was being depicted under all that armor and cables, but nevertheless, he took the papers and walked up to Lance.

"This was in one of the drawers,'' explained Steven as he held out the papers, which Lance took and began to read to himself, eyes narrowing at the detail each paper carried within its words.

"Well, it's a good thing Agatha didn't have any makeovers once we gave her this Gym to use for a few months back in 2000. We might be able to put this to good use, so I'll keep it around.", exclaimed Lance as he put the papers in an evidence bag.

Wallace and Steven noticed Lance examining Giovanni's desk very thoroughly, most likely searching for any more hidden secrets potentially hiding inside of the wooden frame. Lance's teeth clenched as he reached his hand underneath the desk, and his eyes widened in surprise while moving his hands on the bottom. Wallace and Steven heard the sound of a switch being flipped, and they turned around to see part of the back wall slide open, revealing another room. Meanwhile, Lance got up from under the desk and looked at the passageway, studying the doorway that was visible to him and the other Champions.

"Are you ready?", asked Wallace, while Lance and Steven stared into the dark passageway. After a long hesitation, the two others nodded their heads, and the three Champions walked into the hidden hallway, ready to discover more secrets about what Giovanni was up to.

* * *

 _ **December 19, 2002. Hoenn Region - Forina Valley**_

Max was still in front of the others as he ran through the huddled trees in this area, determined to reach Forina first and help Jirachi as soon as possible. They had already wasted some time walking from their campsite to where they were right now, but Max was sure he was close now. Max soon saw open daylight in front of him, and he ran as fast as he could until he reached the end of the little forest, with a beautiful cliff top view of the whole valley in front of him. The massive landscape of Forina was sprawled out in front of Max, who was awed at the sight and the memories it held for him. He sat down near the edge of the cliff, savoring the amazing sight for the moment, until the others arrived behind him. Max was breathless as the others arrived behind him, and they all seemed shocked as well while looking at the beautiful landscape in front of them, complete with tall rock pillars that covered the deep valley underneath.

"It's beautiful… ", murmured Dawn to herself, her jaw wide open in surprise at the sight in front of her, while the others looked on in awe as well at the hidden valley.

"So, this is Forina! Looks like a hell of a place to live in, especially for a Mythical Pokemon.", exclaimed Gary, who was already writing down something in his notebook about the landscape and nearby Pokemon.

"Come on! What are we waiting for!", shouted Max as he started to walk down the path that led into the underbelly of the valley, startling the others's silent appreciation as they slowly reacted, but began to follow him nevertheless into the caverns of Forina.

"Man… how is he so fast?", exclaimed Clemont as he dragged himself into the cave entrance the others had entered a few minutes earlier, his Clemontic Gear backpack holding him back as he caught his breath.

The cave that they were in was dark and damp, with little light in the area they were in now. Brock had given out some spare flashlights to navigate the dark cave, while some of the others brought out Pokemon that could use Flash as well so they wouldn't get lost while inside the caverns.

"All right. Is everyone ready?", asked Cilan enthusiastically.

"Ready as I'll ever be!"shouted Barry, who looked and sounded extremely impatient with all the waiting that was going around at the moment.

He began to run ahead of the group and go farther into the caverns, but was stopped by Trip, who grabbed him and threw him backwards.

"Can you just hold up for one second?!"cried Trip in exhaustion. "You don't want to get lost while we're all still here at the entrance, you know."exclaimed the Unovan Trainer as he crossed his arms in annoyance.

Ash was watching this annoying squabble at the front of the group, until he felt a jolt of panic ran down his body. He whirled around the room, trying to find the culprit, until he felt another shiver down his spine. Ash was frantic for a moment, trying to find whoever was causing him panic, his mind searching for an answer. Ash closed his eyes in worry, unable to find any answer to the problem, until the empty blackness of his sight was filled with hues of blue, signifying the Auras of the people present in the cave with Aura Sight. He could see the Auras of his friends, but as he looked around the cavern, he could sense many more Auras with evil intentions plaguing those individuals. Since the people's Auras outlined their body, Ash could barely make out the people on the other side of the cavern, but he could see that those people were wearing some kind of hood, with pointed horns on both sides of the hood, but one person in that clump of Auras seemed to be wearing a coat, with no hood. Ash knew these people looked extremely familiar, but he couldn't tell who they were. All he did know was that they were up to no good, and he and the others had to stop them before they did anything bad to Jirachi, as they could be the threat that Max had described after hearing Jirachi's plea for help.

" _Come on!_ Think!", yelled Ash inside his head, frantically trying to figure out who these people were and why they were so familiar to him, until recognition struck his mind, startling him like a truck.

Those hooded figures, the pointed horns on each side, and the man who had a different uniform… all of those led to one conclusion, and one that made Ash shiver in worry. Maxie was back, and he brought all of his goons in order to take Jirachi's power, just like Butler did a few years back. Ash was snapped out of his panic by Misty, who grabbed his hand in fear. Ash turned to her, and he could see the worry in her eyes as well. Ash crossed his arms, a stern expression on his face, and he saw her face changed into that of extreme despair and panic for her and the others.

"Do you know who it is?", asked Misty worriedly, her hand gripping Ash's own hand tightly, while her boyfriend stared at the path leading farther into the cave, his eyes glowing azure blue thanks to the Aura Sight he had just used earlier.

"I do… and it's not good. Either way, we have to stop them before they do something bad to Jirachi.", muttered Ash to himself, but he found himself under the gaze of his friends, who had panicked looks on their faces while staring at him.

"Do what to Jirachi? What's going on!", yelled Max, interrupting the almost-deadly silence with his pleas of concern. Ash turned to face the rookie Trainer, a stern expression on his face, and Max knew this wasn't good at all.

 **BOOOOM!**

Just as Ash was about to speak, a massive explosion rocked the cave that they were all in, causing rocks to fall from the ceiling and part of it to cave in, presumably trapping them inside of the collapsing cave. Once the smoke cleared, Max's eyes shot open almost instantly, but he found himself trapped under a pile of rubble, only able to look up at the broken ceiling of the cave, until he saw some figures run near the rubble. Max then heard loud footsteps from the other side of the cave, and with some effort, he managed to move his head over to the side to see who was at the other end of the cavern, and he gasped in fear at the person in his line of sight.

The man at the other end had pale skin and slicked-back red hair, and was wearing thick black glasses, a black and red coat, and black pants. The coat had an engraved "RR" symbol on the front, signifying his rank as a Rainbow Rocket Admin. Max recognized the man as Maxie, the former leader of Team Magma, with his henchmen, which all seemed to join Team Rainbow Rocket, from the looks of their all black uniforms, complete with a black hood and a rainbow-colored RR symbol on their chests.

"So… I see. You all are indeed still alive after all. Nevertheless, I have no use knowing that, as we have much more important things to get done, such as capturing Jirachi's light.", explained Maxie to himself, while his Grunts continued to run around the cavern, obviously up to something.

"You… won't get… away… with this… ", mumbled a voice from across the dark room, and Max instantly recognized Ash's voice under all of that rock and rubble from the cave's ceiling. The rookie trainer struggled to get out of the rocks over his legs and preventing him from getting up, but he was still filled with determination to get out and stop Maxie from using Jirachi's power.

Maxie gritted his teeth and clenched his arms, trying to move out from under the rubble, but to no avail. He had so much determination to stop Maxie and save Jirachi, but the rocks above his legs were the only obstacle in his way. The only problem was that the rocks were the toughest obstacle he faced in what seemed like his whole life.

" _Come on.. Move! Move!"_ , thought Max to himself in panic as he put his arms on the ground and pushed with all his weight, trying to lift the rocks just a few inches so that he could move his legs out from under the weight of the rubble and escape.

Even with Max's extreme determination, he found that he still couldn't move from out under the rubble, but he still was using all of his strength to at least try and get up from the rubble and attempt to stop Maxie once and for all. Suddenly, Max felt something burst inside of him, and a rush of power seemed to flow through his veins. He pushed with his arms again, but he felt much more powerful than before, almost as if his strength had been completely restored. Max concentrated and focused on his arms, pushing up against the ground as he felt another surge of power coursed through his body, as he suddenly found himself right behind Maxie, who didn't even notice him appear.

Max whirled around the room, trying to figure out how he got behind Maxie, and why a bright pink glow was surrounding him for some strange reason. Nevertheless, he sneaked up behind Maxie, preparing to knock the Magma Leader down for the count. However, as he was focusing on sneaking up behind the new Rainbow Rocket Admin, he found the pink glow around his body becoming brighter, and Maxie was also enveloped in the same pink light, startling him and Max as well.

Max moved his head in curiosity, but it moved Maxie's body as well, causing the Grunts to stare in awe as Max moved the RR Admin's levitating body into the Grunts, collapsing them all onto the ground. Max stared in awe at himself and the pink glow surrounding his body, wondering what this new power inside of him truly was capable of. He then realized that he had to rescue his friends first, so he ran over to Ash and the others and started to help them up. Before he even took a step, he stopped to look at himself. His polo shirt and pants were gone, having been replaced with what looked like Ash's new Aura Guardian outfit, complete with a black undershirt, black pants, a blue jacket, and a traditional Guardian's hat. Max stuffed the hat into his backpack and ran over to the others, determined to help them out.

"Come on, Ash… I'll get you out of here.", mumbled Max as he stopped next to Ash and helped him up from off the ground, and continued to go to the remaining people trapped because of the cave-in, getting them back on their feet in an instant.

Ash closed his eyes for a moment, briefly entering Aura Sight, and focused on Max's own Aura. To his surprise, it had changed drastically from only a few minutes ago, now carrying immense power and strength at Max's own command. What was even more shocking was that Max's Aura seemed to be connected to the Psychic type, which would make sense because he was able to lift Maxie up into the air with his mind, and also that he had been able to hear psychic thoughts, such as when he heard that Ralts back in Hoenn a few years earlier.

"Max… your Aura… it's like a Psychic-type. I don't know how, but you've also got Aura inside of you too.", explained Ash, and Max's eyes widened.

He never expected a kid like him to have a power like that. Usually, it was a person like Ash who only had these powers, since he was that typical righteous hero, but it would seem that this was his lucky day.

"Why the hell is Maxie here? Is he a Rainbow Rocket member as well?", asked May in fear as she ran up to her brother, wrapping him into a big Ursaring hug.

"From the looks of it, he's at least an Admin with his own team of Grunts. Either way, we better find Jirachi, if Maxie hasn't found it already.", grumbled Brock as he shook his flashlight, trying to find any remaining electricity to power up the flashlight for the moment.

"Look over there!", shouted Iris as she pointed a finger farther down the path, startling the rest of the group in their tracks.

They looked in front of them to see some light radiating off the dark walls of the cave, signifying that something was down that path, creating that light. The light seemed to flicker off of the walls as well, and for a few seconds they watched as the light disappeared, then reappeared again repeatedly. The group ran over to the source of the flickering light, which took them through the winding cave paths over and over again just to find whoever was causing the light signal. Worst of all, Ash, Brock, May, or Max barely remembered the path they took three and a half years ago to reach Jirachi in this very cave, since Diane led them through the cave at the time. Eventually, they came across a small room in what looked to be the deepest chamber of the interconnecting cave system they had been lost in for over an hour. The chamber was small and dark, but in the center there seemed to be some sort of pedestal, and to their surprise, Jirachi was on top of the pedestal, sleeping soundly.

"Jirachi!", shouted Max as he ran up to the sleeping Legendary, kneeling down onto the ground so he could be at eye level with the Wish Pokemon. Jirachi's eyes flickered open, and the Legendary Pokemon turned over to face Max.

" _Max? Is that you?"_ , asked Jirachi's voice telepathically, and the new Trainer almost broke out into tears of joy at this sight.

"Yeah… it's me. I came to help you out.", exclaimed Max tenderly as he picked up the legendary Pokemon and held it in his arms softly.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get you out, and you'll be alright.", soothed Max as he stood up with Jirachi in his arms, while the group watched in awe of this caring moment.

"All right. Let's go.", exclaimed Ritchie as he started to walk out of the chamber. The rest of the group soon followed him out of the room and back into the winding cave paths, trying to escape and protect Jirachi from Maxie as well.

"Is there another way out of here? We don't want to cross paths with Maxie again, that's for sure.", asked May worriedly.

"Jirachi? Do you know another way out of this place?", asked Max, and to his surprise, it took a few more seconds of silence for the mythical Pokemon to respond.

" _There is one to the south… I'll give you directions. First, go to the right!"_ , exclaimed Jirachi inside of Max's mind, and he relayed the message to the others. They rushed to the path leading right, determined to get out of this dark cavern as quickly as possible.

Suddenly, the group heard a clutter of footsteps from many of the branching cave paths, causing the group to stop right in their tracks. More footsteps could be heard from all around them, and they knew they were surrounded on all fronts, and that it wasn't looking so good for them to get out of the cave anymore.

"Oh, I don't think you're going anywhere.", exclaimed Maxie's nasally voice as he stepped out of the shadows menacingly.

"Giovanni may be overconfident that you won't stop him, but it is my duty to get rid of you meddlers before you disrupt more of our plans.", finished the Rainbow Rocket Admin as he pointed an accusing finger at the group.

"Seize them!"

* * *

 _ **December 19, 2002. Kanto Region - Viridian City**_

Lance, Wallace, and Steven found themselves in a gigantic complex once the wall swung open in Giovanni's office, revealing many floors of what seemed like an abandoned Team Rocket base ripe for the three Champions to explore. In the many rooms that they looked at, the three Champions found more information on Giovanni's past criminal deeds, such as licensing the Viridian Gym only to use it as a Team Rocket Base for a few years. However, they were unable to find any information past the year 1998, except for a few documents about an evolution experiment in the Lake of Rage, which Lance remembered all too well.

"Looks like the last room. We've searched everything else, but there's gotta be some more stuff in this room before we leave.", explained Lance as he walked over to the door, which was also unlocked.

Lance pushed open the door, walked inside the room, and stopped dead in his tracks. He was standing on some sort of balcony that looked down on a gigantically tall room, with its floor stories underneath the Indigo Champion and the balcony he was standing on. Steven and Wallace walked into the room, and they too were shocked at the immense size of the room in front of them. The three also found a staircase that carried them down to the bottom floor, and once they reached the bottom, they came across something even more surprising.

On the bottom floor, the trio found a cylindrical chamber that could have been designed to contain something or someone, with an apparatus of wires and cables coming from a circuit board on top of the chamber. Near the chamber were a few old, dusty desks, and the trio got to work examining the tables for any more new information. Wallace looked at and around the chamber, Steven went to work looking around the rest of the room's hidden corners, and Lance looked at the desks right next to the chamber. Lance opened the first drawer, and he grabbed out what seemed to be more papers and diagrams, but they were dated earlier than the ones from Giovanni's office upstairs, the earliest one having a date of July 1996.

The diagrams seemed to show a small-feline like Pokemon, what seemed like an ancient stone carving, and some writings about a cloning process. If Lance was right, then these papers were talking about cloning the Legendary Pokemon Mew and creating what seemed like an artificial Pokemon.

Lance grabbed the papers and stuffed them all into an evidence bag, which he put in one of the pockets in his cape. He then walked towards Wallace to check on what he found, but to his surprise, he was calling someone on his PokeNav Plus with a distressed look on his face.

"What do you mean, he's back? Is that true?", asked Wallace breathlessly into his PokeNav Plus, his face having become extremely pale and filled with worry.

There was another moment of silence as Wallace's face became even more pale, and Lance was full of worry. What had happened that would make Wallace become so afraid? Was there another incident with Rainbow Rocket, or was this a lot worse?

Wallace took a deep breath and hung up the call, folding up his PokeNav Plus and slipping it into his pocket. He looked in front of him to see Lance crossing his arms, a stern yet worried look on his face.

"So what happened this time?", asked Lance worriedly as Wallace took another deep breath to prepare himself for the inevitable.

"One of my field agents just reported in from central Hoenn. There's been… an attack on an ancient site in Hoenn, and they've been able to figure out who it is… ", explained Wallace, his hand rubbing the sweat off his forehead.

"Well? Who is it?", asked Lance, his normally stern voice now mixed with curiosity and worry at the same time.

"Maxie Thompson.", mouthed Wallace, and Lance's eyes widened in shock.

He had dealt with Maxie and Team Magma before, back when he teamed up with Ash and his friends to stop him and his rival, Archie Schemmel, along with Team Aqua, from controlling Groudon and Kyogre to expand the world's landmass and/or the world's waters, depending on what team you were on.

"Maxie? I thought he was still in custody!", exclaimed Lance as he grabbed his PokeGear and started typing into it furiously, which clearly showed his immense anger.

"Either way, I've got to get myself over to Hoenn, and they want Steven to come too. We'll need all the help we can get, so we'll have to leave Pallet and go back to Ever Grande.", finished Wallace.

Lance nodded his head in understanding. "Very well then. I'll keep looking through the Gym, but you two better get back to Hoenn.", he finished sternly.

He watched as Wallace ran up to Steven, who was across the room, and the Steel-type's eyes widened once Wallace finished talking to him. They walked up to the staircase, but Steven stopped himself while Wallace walked up.

"See you around, Lance. It was fun while it lasted.", said Steven as he gave a small salute and walked upstairs, leaving Lance alone inside the basement room, still collecting evidence.

Lance gave a salute back as the two Hoenn-native Champions walked back onto the balcony and out of his eyesight. He sighed to himself, as this would take much longer with one person in this giant room, rather than three. Lance thought to himself for a moment, until his eyes widened in shock. He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out the clear evidence bag he had been carrying with him the whole time. He looked at the documents that he had put inside, trying to come up with a solution. If what these documents were saying was true, then Giovanni had created a clone of Mew, and that clone might know what Giovanni was up to.

It was an enormous risk, but a risk he had to take nonetheless to find any information on what the Rainbow Rocket Boss was planning.

* * *

 _ **December 19, 2002. Hoenn Region - Forina Valley**_

Maxie's Grunts charged at Ash and his friends, and the fight was on. Some Grunts sent out their Pokemon and attacked from afar, releasing their Camerupts, Golbats, and Weezings out to aid their comrades from the back lines.

Meanwhile, Ash, Gary, Brock, and a few others charged at the Grunts, ready to meet the Rainbow Rocket Grunts punch for punch, while the rest of the group sent out their Pokemon to counter the attacks of the Grunts' Pokemon as well.

Ash started to tap into his Aura as he fought with the Grunts, being able to sense every punch beforehand and knew when and how to counter each blow the Grunts sent at him. He countered a right hook with an Aura-infused block, then sent a left hook right into the stomach of a Grunt, sending him flying backwards into the wall.

Misty stayed near the back lines, activating her Aura as well and sending well-timed Water Pulses to knock the Grunts down, helping out Ash and the others who were in the front lines.

After handing Jirachi off to Leaf, who was standing on the side, Max had decided to take advantage of his new abilities and started to Teleport around the room, surprising the Grunts as he tripped them up onto the ground, knocking down Maxie's forces one by one.

Iris moved as fast as she could around the tight cave room, almost as if she was swinging on vines back in Unova. She used the element of surprise to her advantage, tripping up Grunts onto the floor and then swinging back across the room.

Cilan called out his Pansage to help with the fight, its Bullet Seed attacks making the Grunts flinch and stumble while concentrated on other opponents to fight in the dark cave.

Serena commanded her Pancham to join in the action and beat up Grunts, while Clemont was using his Chespin's Pin Missile to startle Grunts, leaving them open for attack as well.

Brock had chosen to use his brute strength instead of his Pokemon, as he had charged into the battlefield and was punching and slamming his way through unsuspecting Grunts left and right.

Dawn released her Togekiss out of its Pokeball, and it fired out countless Aura Spheres from long range to startle the Grunts, and even knock a few down for the count as well.

Ritchie commanded Zippo to use Flamethrower around the room, burning down any Grunt that dared go into its line of fire to a crisp.

May sent out her Venusaur, which used its Vine Whip attack to grab Rainbow Rocket Grunts in midair and send them flying backwards and away from her and the others.

Drew called on his Flygon to assist him as he rode on its back, knocking down any Grunts he came across while Flygon used Dragon Breath to paralyze them as well.

Kenny and Zoey sent out their Empoleon and Glameow respectively, which used a spinning Flash Cannon and Shadow Claw technique on any unsuspecting Grunts, beating them up all while creating a Contest-worthy spectacle.

Paul and Gary also decided to join the brawl in the middle of the cave, dodging any punch or kick sent by a Grunt and following it up with a strong move to send them flying backwards onto the floor.

Barry decided to use his speed to his advantage, running through the crowd of Grunts and teenagers and tripping up any Grunt that got in his or his friends' way onto the floor.

After Misty had fired another Water Pulse, she turned around to notice Leaf leaning back against their side of the cave wall, talking to somebody on her X-Transceiver while fiddling with a Pokeball in her hand. She walked over to the G-Men agent, who only noticed her as she leaned on the wall right next to her.

"What are you doing? Why aren't you helping out like the rest of us?", asked Misty suspiciously, distracting Leaf from her call and making her cover her X-Transceiver so that whoever she was calling wouldn't hear her conversation with Misty.

"I'm trying to radio for backup. Just give me a few more minutes, and I'm sure the G-Men will bust this house down.", explained Leaf, and Misty nodded her head in understanding.

"All right. I'll do what I can.", reassured Misty as she gave a thumbs up, and ran back to the battlefield, her Aura firing up around her body again as she released more Water Pulses from her hands.

Leaf stared at her X-Transceiver, ready for the Hoenn G-Men team she had alerted to give the signal to evacuate her and the others out of the cave as quickly as possible. She had been waiting for a few minutes now, but the G-Men commander had not messaged her back yet, and all she could do was wait. Suddenly, her X-Transceiver beeped, signaling a notification, and Leaf's heart started pounding in her chest. She opened up the messaging app, only to find a rather disappointing message on her screen.

" _The walls are too thick to break through. We'll just go in through the doors. Might take another minute or so."_

Leaf scowled, her eyes turning up and staring at the fighting going on in front of her. From the looks of it, the fighting could go on for a little while, but their side could be wiped out by the seemingly unlimited number of Grunts Maxie had brought with him for the mission.

"Just a few more seconds… come on… ", she muttered to herself, her entire body clenching in fear as the suspense grew larger every second. She knew the gang was getting tired from the way they moved on the battlefield, and Ash and Misty looked like their Aura reserves were draining, almost done entirely.

She knew she couldn't rescue her friends by herself, which was exactly why she had called for backup. The only problem was that even if she joined the fight, it wouldn't help because the others were losing their strength, so the backup had to arrive soon or else they were done for.

 **KA-BOOOM!**

A massive explosion rocked the cave once again, sending rocks falling down onto the ground, and causing the two opposing forces to back off from the brawl and focus on what, or who, caused that explosion.

"This is Kevin Jones of the Hoenn G-Men. Maxie, you're under arrest for ransacking a Hoenn Historical Nature Site and escaping custody of the G-Men. Looks like your time is up, old man.", exclaimed a deep and confident voice as a group of people in black uniforms entered the room.

Maxie scowled, but still seemed to have confidence. "Grunts, take them out. I will deal with those fools over there.", explained the RR Admin as he slowly walked over to the gang as his Grunts prepared to take out the G-Men agents that had just arrived.

Max shivered as he watched Maxie walk over to him and the others, so he grabbed Jirachi out of Leaf's hands quickly.

"Jirachi, go! Maxie won't notice you if you escape now!", he whispered, and the Wish Pokemon nodded in understanding.

"I'll see you again. I'm sure of it.", explained Max softly, and Jirachi nodded its head in understanding, with a facial mixture of sadness and acceptance.

Jirachi flew out of Max's arms and into one of the branching cave paths, and it was a miracle that Maxie didn't notice the Legendary Pokemon fly away right near him as he walked over to meet them. Maxie was still far away from the group since the cave was so large, but any moment now, he would catch up to them and presumably drag them back to Giovanni, which was a fate none of the group wanted to have.

Max concentrated and focused on his newly awakened Aura, all while focusing on everybody else in the group. He knew he could use Teleport to travel short distances instantly today, but he knew trying to Teleport himself and eighteen other people far, far away from this place would take almost all of his remaining energy. Max focused as hard as he could, and peeked his eyes open for a moment just to see Maxie get ever closer to him and his friends. He closed his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth in concentration, releasing his Aura from inside his body again. He opened his eyes to see a bubble of psychic energy in his hands, ready to be controlled at his command. Max stretched out the bubble to envelop himself and his friends as quickly as possible, as the others watched on in surprise.

Max concentrated on Teleporting him and the gang anywhere but Forina, as he just wanted them to get out of this place and away from Maxie. They would deal with the side effects of where they ended up once they got there, and Max seemed fine with that. He unleashed one last burst of Aura into the bubble, and he felt himself being pulled across a black dimension instantly, watching as he and the others were instantly Teleported to another location.

Maxie's glasses almost slipped off his head, and he looked straight at the other side of the wall, where those meddling kids should have been once he reached this side of the cave.

Where in the world did they go? And how did they not see them leave? These questions instantly baffled Maxie's usually intelligent mind, and he could not come up with a logical answer as to why and how those kids got away. He was then snapped out of his thoughts by his Grunts signaling him to come over and help with their fight against the G-Men agents. As he walked over to his Grunts, he knew that Giovanni would not be pleased with his failure, but he hoped he would avenge this failure and come out on top, once he got out of this mess first.

* * *

 _ **December 19, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 111**_

Max felt the sensation of instantly traveling stop, and he fell out of midair onto what felt like soft yet rocky sand.

Once he got himself up, he brushed the sand off his clothes, spat some out of his mouth, and turned around to see the others in a heap right next to him. He ran over to help them up, which took a lot of effort since he was already exhausted.

"Where the hell are we?", asked May in confusion. Her gaze soon turned to Max, however, and she ran over to him and wrapped him in a giant hug for the second time that day.

"Max? Did you get us out of there like that? And how are you able to use Aura?", asked May, and Max turned to face her sheepishly, shrugging to his sister.

"I honestly don't know why I can use Aura or how I managed to get us out of there, but I'm glad I did. All I know is that I can use Aura, and that I'll just put it to good use.", explained Max with a shrug.

"Isn't this Route 111?", asked Ash, while thinking to himself about something. "Congratulations, Max. You managed to transport yourself from near Mt. Chimney all the way to this desert after just awakening your Aura. That's great!"

Max beamed at Ash's praise, but he then realized that they were still in the middle of nowhere, and in a hot desert, no less. It would take a while to get out of here, but he knew he and the others could do it.

"Well, come on, guys.", exclaimed Max as he started to walk in front of the group, more confident than he'd ever felt in his life.

"Let's get going."

* * *

 **And so this ends the group's first adventure in Hoenn, with more to come in later chapters. There's still a long way to go to finish this story, and I intend to do that all the way through with you guys. As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	16. XV - The Search for the Legend

**I'm back, everyone! I'm proud to present the fifteenth non-prologue chapter for my story, and I personally think that it's a pretty good one. I hope you enjoy this chapter and the rest of my story as well!**

 **Since there were no new reviews recently, there will not be any review responses. Now, onto the story!**

* * *

 **The Eighteen**

Chapter XV

The Search for the Legend

* * *

 _ **December 24, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 111**_

"Hey! I think I see something over there!", shouted May enthusiastically, but out of the blue nevertheless.

She had interrupted the group's conversations by pointing her finger towards what seemed like a skyline in the distance, pretty from the dusty deserts of Route 111 and where they were currently walking in.

"Are you sure it's real this time?", retorted Max."I don't think we want another repeat of the 'desert city mirage' incident all over again. It took us hours to actually realize we were still in this crazy place!"

"I'm being serious!", exclaimed May, frantically pointing in front of her. "Can't you guys see it too? It's right in front of us!"

"Guess we're in for another delusional day. Almost out of water, everyone acting crazy, it's almost like we're in one of those survival TV shows.", exclaimed Gary as he walked towards May, who was still pointing in the distance.

Drew walked up to Gary, and slapped his hand on the researcher's shoulder.

"Well, considering we're already trying to survive on our own, I don't think that's too far of a stretch.", snarked the Pokemon Coordinator.

"Well, can anybody make sure that city in front of us is actually real? I don't think anybody wants a repeat of three days ago!", asked Max, obviously impatient with the slow responses he was getting.

Ever since he unlocked his innate Aura abilities a few days earlier, it was almost as if a switch had been flipped inside of Max's mind. Ash was right when he mentioned that Max's Aura had merged with the Psychic type, as Max could now use Psychic attacks and his mind felt… enhanced by the effects of the psychic energies swirling through wasn't even the weirdest part of the whole affair, which had to go to the new clothes. Besides the dark blue uniforms the three had acquired, the three Aura adepts had also been given long, navy blue cloaks to help conceal their identities and to help go with the whole scheme the outfits had.

He closed his eyes while entering Aura Sight in the process. After a few days of learning how his Aura worked with Ash and Misty, Max was able to get a better grip on controlling and using his Aura, and he felt the thrilling rush of power in his veins as his eyes changed to a bright magenta color. Nearby Auras swirled around Max as he scanned into the distance in front of him, and he stopped short once he noticed a clump of Auras nestled together in front of him. His eyes widened open, and he spun around to face the others.

"There's a bunch of Auras down south. We should move fast if we want to get out of here quickly.", exclaimed Max, and the group's eyes widened in surprise.

"Well, what are we waiting for? I can't wait to get back to civilization once and for all!", yelled May, running ahead of the group and pulling ahead towards what seemed to be the big city.

"Hey! Wait up!", shouted Ash and the rest of the group as they ran up behind them to successfully catch up with the others.

"Are you sure you know where you're going this time? Do you know if this city's safe?", asked the raven-haired trainer as he stopped next to the group members while the others caught up, struggling to catch their breaths.

Leaf opened her X-Transceiver and scrolled through her 3D holographic map of the Hoenn region, until her eyes laid on one specific dot on her translucent map.

"We can reach Mauville City we can reach if we keep walking south, and from there, we can go east to Route 118. It also says that there's a few shops and salons, if anyone wants to get their hair dyed or get different contacts to help yourselves not get spotted by any authorities.", explained Leaf.

"That… does sound like a good idea. Maybe we could try it out, but only if you feel that it's necessary.", continued Brock as he put away his PokeGear and motioned the group to follow him on the southern road leading towards the big city, where their next adventure presumably lied in its streets.

* * *

 _ **December 24, 2002. Kanto Region - Pewter City**_

"Forrest, can you take care of your siblings? Flint and I have to run some errands down in Cerulean.", exclaimed Lola Harrison as she peeked her head into the bedroom that her son Forrest shared with his brothers.

"Okay, mom. I'll take care of it.", muttered the now-inactive Pewter Gym Leader as he slumped down in his bed, continuing to read his book while his siblings played around the house.

Life had been hard for the Harrison family ever since Brock had died, leaving his caretaker role to Forrest, who had much more time on his hands once the Indigo League was postponed for the 2002-2003 League season. He had to now take care of his eight other siblings, who were all dealing with the repercussions of their oldest brother's death.

Lola felt a twinge of sadness as she left the room, knowing that it would be hard for everyone to manage themselves without Brock being there to hold the family together. It was hard to stay positive for the big family without Brock being there, and especially since he was gone for good. Her eyes turned to the front door, where her husband Flint was waiting for her. His arms were crossed on his chest and he had a stern expression on his face, signifying his serious nature. Lola opened the door, letting Flint walk out before closing it shut, and the married couple walked in silence until they reached their car in the driveway. Once they got inside, they continued to drive in silence on their way to the store, as their mood for conversations had soured deeply in the past three weeks.

As the car sped onto the east side of Indigo Interstate 50 from Indigo Plateau to Lavender Town, Flint's hands gripped the wheel tighter, presumably to control himself from the other cars nearby, and Lola could see beads of sweat on her husband's face as the stress seemingly built up. Lola looked back onto the road to see a bunch of cars ahead of them swerving to a halt in the middle of the interstate, and just as she was about to tell Flint about it, she saw him swerve the steering wheel, causing the car to turn sideways and skid along the asphalt road to a stop. Flint heard the screeching sound of his skidding car tires as he turned the steering wheel and hit the brake pedal, trying his hardest to not crash into the other cars that were stopped in the middle of the road as well.

As soon as the car skidded to a stop, Flint slammed the shift into park and ran out of the door, with Lola following suit behind him. There was a big crowd in front of the stopped cars, and they both wanted to see what was causing all this ruckus on the interstate.

Flint pushed through the packed crowd as fast as he could, until he stopped short at what he was seeing.

There were a bunch of people in black uniforms - the Indigo G-Men, Flint realized to himself. The weirdest part was that in the center of the G-Men party was Lance, standing in the middle of the interstate and halting all the traffic. Lance noticed Flint standing in front of the crowd, and he motioned the former Pewter City Gym Leader to come forward. Flint saw this and obliged, slowly walking up to the Indigo Champion and his squad of G-Men.

"Flint… I knew you would be coming. We need to talk.", explained Lance, his arms crossed in a serious manner.

Flint looked like he was about to burst out in laughter and surprise.

"Ever heard of a telephone? You could have just called me!", he said in disbelief.

"I couldn't have done that, because I need you to come with me right now. It's important.", mumbled Lance, and Flint looked like he was about to burst.

"You've got to be kidding me! You crowd a whole interstate just to talk to me?! Don't you have any compassion?!", shouted Flint in exasperation as Lola ran up next to him, surprised at who her husband was talking to.

"You're a former Gym Leader, right?", asked Lance, and Flint nodded his head, his teeth gritting in anger.

"Well, I'm going to need all the help I can get, so you better come with me. I don't have much time to talk to you right now.", explained Lance as his G-Men agents were handling the annoyed drivers and the press, which had flown in from their helicopters.

"And leave the car stranded here? No thanks. I'll just leave and be on my way with my wife. Goodbye, and good luck with your shitshow you've got going on here.", spat Flint.

He turned away from Lance and started to walk away back to his car until a familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.

"How weird of you to refuse an official League order like that, _Harrison_.", exclaimed an old and stern voice, causing Flint's eyes to widen in shock, whirling around to face whoever had called him out.

Agatha stepped out from behind Lance, her wooden cane hitting the asphalt floor as she walked forward to greet Flint, who clenched his fists tightly, preparing for the worst.

"Lola, get back to the car and get home. Now.", muttered Flint, but she was cut off by Lance again, as he rushed the group over to off the road, as Agatha's Gengar carried the car onto the exit ramp for Route 3.

"We need both of you for this mission. We already have fourteen other representatives from fourteen other cities for this mission, and we would be glad if you could assist us on that front as well.", explained Lance.

Flint put his head in his hands. "Of course you had to bring the other Gym Leaders with you on this. What even do you need me for?", he asked in exasperation.

"I'll disclose most of that information later. But first things first… ", muttered Lance as he handed out two pamphlets to Flint, as Lola was busy calling Forrest to notify him of the situation.

"We have to go to Johto."

* * *

 _ **December 24, 2002. Hoenn Region - Mauville City**_

"Finally! I need to sit down and grab a bite at the nearest burger joint around here. Anyone want to join me?", asked Gary as he sat down onto a bench, fiddling with his Umbreon's Pokeball on his hand.

They had reached Mauville around half an hour ago, and the group had been relaxing in the little park in the city's main square, discussing what to do now after walking through the desert for the past few days. Ash and Brock were extremely surprised at how new and modern the city looked compared to their last visit, whereas May elaborated that the city had undergone massive changes funded by Wattson, the Mauville Gym Leader.

Once they had entered the city, Leaf had also separated from the rest of the group for a brief moment, saying that she had some business to deal with while the group went to the city square.

"I might as well go… after I take a trip to the apparel shop. I was thinking that if I change up some stuff, it would make it harder for people to recognize who I was, and the same should go for the rest of us.", reasoned Ash as he sat down next to his childhood friend.

"Looks like I've got you both beat.", exclaimed a voice from the other side of the room, and Ash and Gary whirled around to see Leaf, sporting a whole new attire.

She had ditched the black baseball cap she had been wearing on and off entirely to have nothing covering her face and leaving her long brown hair fall down onto her back. She was also wearing a sleeveless black dress, white gloves, and black ankle boots instead of her issued G-Men uniform as a slight change.

"Well, well, Leaf. Didn't expect you to go and get all dressed up like that. Seems like a nice change, to be honest.", complimented Gary as he stood up from the bench to talk to his old friend.

"You shouldn't have expected me to be in that sweaty G-Men uniform the whole time, Gary. That was your first mistake.", taunted Leaf as she walked over to the rest of the group and sat down next to everybody.

"Then again, nobody knows I even exist in the first place, so I can get away with some cool perks.", she finished, while smirking at Gary.

"If anyone else wants, the apparel shop is large and has lots of stuff to choose from, so go ahead if you want to.", exclaimed Leaf as she opened up her X-Transceiver and scrolled through her update feed.

"How about we split up again and meet up back in this park for lunch. You can go to the apparel shop, get your hair done, or just change something up. Sounds good?", asked Ash, who flipped down his cloak's hood, his azure blue eyes shining brightly.

"All right. See you in a few hours!", exclaimed Barry as he ran off, presumably off to the nearest video game shop to try out some of the newest titles that had released for the top consoles.

The others stared at their friend's increasingly impatient attitude as he ran through the city streets, with no regard for protecting himself and his identity from the public. Ash just shrugged as he took Misty's hand and the two of them turned around and walked in a separate direction, ready to check out what Mauville City had to offer for them.

* * *

 _ **December 24, 2002. Kanto Region - Indigo Interstate 50 Exit 2**_

As Agatha's Gengar shadow teleported itself and the Harrison's station wagon back to Pewter City, a helicopter landed in the field that Lola, Flint, and the Elite Four were standing on right by the highway, where the traffic was now moving smoothly.

Lance swished his cape while he turned around and walked into the helicopter after his Elite Four, but not before turning back around to face the Harrisons. "Get in.", he mumbled, snapping Lola and Flint out of their disbelieving stupor as they ran into the chopper.

Lance signaled the pilot to start the helicopter, and he sat down on a seat as the four rotor blades began to spin, carrying the chopper up into the air.

"Okay, I'll bite. Why exactly did you get us and the other Gym Leaders involved in… whatever this is! Why didn't you take the other Champions with you instead?", asked Flint, who still looked angry at Lance.

"The Champions are waiting at our destination, save for Wallace and Steven, of course. They had to return to Hoenn because of reports that Maxie and Archie have resurfaced there under Rainbow Rocket.", explained Lance.

"And as for the other Gym Leaders… I just thought that we would need all the help we could get with this present situation." he finished, and Flint nodded grimly.

"I performed an investigation with Wallace and Steven into the Viridian Gym a few days ago, and we found something interesting that should be taken note of.", added Lance as he pointed to Flint's pocket, where the pamphlet that Lance had given him was still there.

Flint reached into his pocket, took out said pamphlet, and began to flip through its contents, stopping short once he reached a diagram of some… kind of Pokemon with lots of notes and information underneath.

"What the… what even is this thing?! You seriously expect us to stop a clone Pokemon?!", cried out Flint, at which Lola grabbed the paper out of her husband's hand and started to read it for herself.

"… created by Giovanni and Team Rocket… Psychic-type… destroyed laboratory… virtually unstoppable?! You can't be serious! First you put my son in danger and let him die, and now this?", cried Lola, who looked like she could kill Lance in cold blood with the glare that she was giving him.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this situation… but we need to find this Pokemon. It might be able to give us useful information as to what Giovanni is planning for Team Rainbow Rocket in the near future.", reassured Lance.

That didn't stop Lola's extreme anger, and for good reason. Even if he was the Indigo Champion, he was still dragging a grieving couple consisting of a retired Trainer and Gym Leader, along with fourteen other Leaders from Kanto and Johto plus the Elite Four, all in order to somehow reach an unstoppable artificial Pokemon that was in hiding for five years now.

"This may be our only hope to figure out what Rainbow Rocket is up to, and how we can find a way to stop them. I trust that you will understand where I'm coming from here.", said Lance, his head pointing downward.

Flint saw the regret in the Indigo Champion's eyes, which was abnormal for a person who was usually calm and serious. He was still mad at Lance for taking Brock and his friends to Indigo Plateau, leaving them in danger, and letting them die at the hands of Team Rainbow Rocket, but he could clearly see that Lance regretted his decision- making from a few weeks earlier, and it seemed that the two of them both wanted revenge against Giovanni and Rainbow Rocket as a whole.

"Fine. I'll join this so-called crusade. But only because I want to get back at Giovanni too.", grumbled the former Pewter Gym Leader as he handed the pamphlet back to Lance.

Lola nodded her head as well, signaling her approval of the mission as Lance collected the pamphlets and stood up inside of the helicopter, walking over to the back door of the cockpit as Flint and Lola watched his movements. He opened the cockpit door to see Lieutenant Surge in the pilot's seat, with Will of his Johto Elite Four as the copilot, flying through the northern mountains with ease thanks to Surge's military skills and Will's psychic abilities.

"How much longer, Will?", asked Lance as he fiddled with his cape, waiting for his Psychic-type Elite Four member to respond from the co-pilot's seat.

"If Surge doesn't screw up flying this plane-"

A muffled angry sound came from Will's partner in the cockpit, but the psychic chose to ignore Surge's complaints and keep talking

"We should be there in at least thirty minutes. I've already checked with Karen, and she says that the rest of the transports with the Gym Leaders have already arrived on location.", exclaimed Will.

"Good.", exclaimed Lance as he opened the cockpit door again and walked out to face Lola and Flint. "We should be arriving soon, so prepare yourselves.", he finished.

Flint turned to look at his wife, a strained expression on his face. He knew what they were doing was extremely risky, but there were many more Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and Champions ready at hand to aid them. He was determined to help Lance out and find this mysterious Pokemon, only because it might give them clues as to how they could stop Giovanni's plans for Team Rainbow Rocket.

* * *

 _ **December 24, 2002. Hoenn Region - Mauville City**_

"All right, guys… lunch is served!", exclaimed Brock as he brought out plates and utensils, ready to serve the rest of the group their long-awaited meal in the big city, and the others were practically watering at the mouth at the sight of their lunch for the day.

Brock, like most of the group, had gone to the apparel shop to buy some new clothes to alter his appearance, and he was now sporting a blue jacket with a gray undershirt, black cargo pants, and gray running shoes as he set up the portable table. His co-chef, Cilan, had also gone shopping, since his waiter tuxedo would make him instantly recognizable thanks to his fame as a Pokemon Connoisseur and chef, so he walked out of Mauville's famous clothes store wearing a green long-sleeve shirt, gray pants, and black running shoes. The two head chefs looked at the rest of their friends, who all had new clothes that they had put on to help conceal themselves from the public and the authorities. May, for example, had bought a blue sleeveless collared shirt, blue and black shorts, a blue bandanna with a Pokeball insignia, and blue running shoes as she ate more of Brock and Cilan's great cooking.

Dawn had spent the most amount of time in the stores due to her obsession with looking good and buying clothes, and she had come out for lunch still wearing her trademark beanie, but she also had a dark blue v-neck t-shirt, a black skirt, dark blue boots, and a long red scarf that draped over her back.

Iris was wearing a cream-colored long-sleeved shirt, black leggings, and white shoes to go with her new attire as she chomped down on her lunch all while scolding the others for their eating habits, especially Ash.

Gary had bought a purple unzipped and short-sleeved jacket and a black undershirt for a new outfit, and Paul even came back to the park's picnic area wearing a purple t-shirt, black pants, and black running shoes to add to his new appearance.

Barry sat down on the grass right next to the table wearing his usual green scarf, and he also had an unzipped green jacket and a gray undershirt to finish off his new appearance.

Kenny was wearing a light blue v-neck t-shirt, gray shorts, and black shoes after visiting the apparel shop, and Zoey had walked back to the park in an orange long-sleeve shirt and light blue denim jeans as she grabbed her plate of food from Brock's chef counter.

Serena, after spending what seemed like hours in that apparel shop, came out with her usual light pink collared dress and hat from her second outfit when she traveled in Kalos, but she had ditched the red vest from that outfit and she also had black boots and black stockings to add to her new appearance.

Clemont had ditched the blue and yellow jumpsuit he had worn in Kalos for a light blue and yellow-striped shirt, gray pants, and blue tennis shoes once he walked out of the apparel shop.

Drew had bought a two-tone green long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and gray hi-tops after leaving the clothes store, while Trip came back to the park wearing an unzipped red hoodie, dark gray pants, and black hi-top sneakers.

Ritche was wearing a dark blue vest over a black t-shirt and dark blue pants, while also wearing black tennis shoes that he got from the apparel shop.

Ash, Misty, and Max had not chosen to buy anything new at the apparel shop, as they were still wearing their navy blue Aura Guardian clothes and cloaks that they had for the past few days or weeks, depending on who received them first.

"Man… why was it so crowded in the mall? It was almost like the whole city was in those stores all at once!", asked Max as he poked at his food with his fork in between eating.

"Well, it is Christmas Eve today, so lots of people are out shopping for the holiday season.", exclaimed Serena while eating her lunch, and Max nodded his head in understanding.

"So I was thinking that we could leave tomorrow morning and go east towards Route 118. Since we know that Maxie is still out in the region, we could try and go east to see what they're planning next.", exclaimed Leaf as she opened up her 3D map on her X-Transceiver.

"That sounds good, but how will we know that Maxie won't go west instead? And if we want to save our hides, shouldn't we keep going south back to Slateport City and catch a boat out of here as fast as possible?", asked Trip worriedly.

"If we go south and leave Hoenn, then we would be leaving the region basically open for Rainbow Rocket to take. Do you want to save yourselves, or save the whole world?", exclaimed Leaf, her arms crossed on her chest.

"As much as I would want to get out of here as much as possible… I know I don't have a choice here.", interrupted Ash. "I've already saved the world more times than I can count, and now that I can use Aura… I have to put it to some good use."

Ash looked at Misty only to see her worried facial expression directed towards him, and he understood why she felt this way. He knew he was practically bound by obligation to save the world as the Chosen One, but he had mostly bound into those world-saving adventures by accident. What worried Ash now was that he actually had a choice if he could save the world or not, and that was what was plaguing him at this moment in time. It was either save himself or the world, and that was a very tough decision for him to make.

"And as for your first question, Barry… Maxie did go west to Mt. Chimney in his plot a few years ago back with Team Magma, and he's already targeted Forina, also in western Hoenn. As there aren't any other notable locations west of Forina, the only presumable road we can take is going east.", explained Leaf.

"That does make a lot of sense, so maybe we should head east. After all, there's also more chances to leave by boat farther east, like in Lilycove City, if we stop Rainbow Rocket a few more times along the way.", exclaimed May.

Drew shook his head once May finished speaking, surprising many of the group. "I don't know if going east is such a good idea. It's more densely populated over there, so that could lead to more of a risk of us getting caught."

"That's true, but the point of buying these new clothes and changing our appearances was to try and not get spotted by the public or any authorities, so I don't see any problem with that.", added Ritchie.

Drew raised an eyebrow at Ritchie's statement, but shrugged it off nevertheless, staring back down at his food and poking it with his fork again while the others continued to discuss amongst each other about what to do.

"Now that that's settled, why don't we spend the rest of the night here? There are a few hotels and condos that we can rent per night, so maybe we should try that out.", exclaimed Brock as he looked at his PokeGear.

"That sounds great! I've heard the rooms in Mauville Hills are great to sleep in for the night, so we should check that out too.", exclaimed Cilan cheerfully.

"And it's Christmas Eve today, so we can stay for the night and celebrate it with the rest of the city!", chirped Iris happily.

The others all looked excited at staying in Mauville City for the night, and especially to celebrate a fun holiday such as Christmas Day with the residents of a big city like this one, and it felt like a great time to relax and enjoy themselves for one more night.

* * *

 _ **December 24, 2002. Johto Region - Mt. Quena**_

Flint felt Lieutenant Surge lower the yoke as the helicopter flew down towards its destination, which looked to be on a large mountain in northern Johto, while Lola gripped her husband's hand in fear of what was to come. The helicopter soon landed on the helipad, where Flint, Lola, and Lance could see many people waiting with a number of off-road Jeeps and Humvees, presumably to drive up the mountain path with. Lance opened the door and stepped out of the main cabin and onto the ground, where he was greeted by Bruno and Lorelei of his Kanto Elite Four, while Flint and Lola walked out to greet their fellow Gym Leaders as well.

"What took you so long, Lance? We were waiting here for hours!", asked Bruno as he shook his boss's hand as he walked out of the helicopter.

Lance thought to himself for a moment before responding again. "Well, we did cause a huge traffic stall back on Interstate 50… ", he mumbled under his breath, making sure Bruno wouldn't hear him.

"Oh man, that was you? I just saw that on the news!", exclaimed Bruno as he slapped Lance on the shoulder. "Why were you even there in the first place anyway?"

Lance turned around and pointed towards Flint and Lola, who were busy talking with their fellow Gym Leaders from across Kanto and Johto, while Bruno and Lorelei's eyes widened in surprise.

"You brought them here? I thought they were both retired!", exclaimed Lorelei in disbelief, matching Bruno's shocked expression. Meanwhile, Lance just nodded his head and turned back to his two Elite Four members.

"We're going to need all the help we can get here, so that's why most of us are here. We need to stay on our guard for this mission, since we could be facing against a dangerous Pokemon here.", explained Lance as he walked over to where everyone else was standing.

"Cynthia. Is everything ready?", asked Lance as he walked over to the Sinnoh Champion, who had been flying around the area on her Garchomp and had just landed back at the base of the mountain.

"I think we're good. The outside of the mountain path is relatively empty, so we should be able to reach the top without any Pokemon attacking the transport.", explained Cynthia.

"Good. Just make sure to get everyone together as I make last-minute preparations to go up the mountain path.", exclaimed Lance, and Cynthia nodded her head in understanding while walking up to the others and directing themselves inside the transport Humvees.

Lance walked over to the beginning of the mountain path, where a man in a brown coat was standing in front of him, writing something down in his notebook. The man turned around to face the Indigo Champion, a stern expression on his face as Lance walked over to face him.

"Looker… thanks for coming all the way out here to help us and the G-Men with this situation. I trust you have reinforcements on call if the situation goes awry?", asked Lance, and the man now called Looker nodded his head.

"The International Police has stations and precincts in almost every region worldwide, Lance. Of course I have more officers that I can just call in an instant.", exclaimed Looker calmly.

"And as for this Pokemon… I remember hearing something about an artificial Pokemon in Southwest Kanto around four and a half years ago, but they didn't have enough viable evidence for us to consider investigating them.", said Looker.

"So it might have moved here to Johto… ", mumbled Lance under his breath. "Either way, we have to take a chance and check out this place to make sure this Pokemon is still here."

"Then what are we waiting for?", asked Looker as he ran back to the nearest Humvee with an empty seat. "We should get going already!", he shouted as Lance ran back to his Humvee and took the driver's seat next to his team of G-Men agents.

Lance turned on the car motor, pressed his foot on the gas pedal, and started to drive up the mountain path, with a line of cars behind him carrying G-Men agents, Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and even Champions on the uphill climb to the top of the mountain.

* * *

Lance's eyes widened as the uphill mountain path began to flatten out, and reveal a beautiful forest and lake in what looked like a crater bowl at the top of the mountain, and he was speechless just by looking at its natural beauty. He remembered from his briefing with a few naturalists and researchers living around here that this place was called Clarity Lake, and it was said to be the purest water source in all of Kanto and Johto. Lance reached the edge of the cliff overlooking the massive crater bowl, and he put his foot off the gas, pushed his gear shift into park, turned off the car motor, and jumped out of his Humvee and onto the rocky crater cliff, soon followed by his team of G-Men agents. He watched as the rest of the transport vehicles drove up next to his car and parked next to it, letting the whole task force get out and walk over to where Lance and his agents were currently standing.

"I still don't understand… ", mumbled Alder, who looked completely exhausted.

"Why didn't we just go up the mountain on our Pokemon? We could have got up here two hours ago if we did that!"

"Alder, if we did use our Pokemon to fly up here, then they would be tired out even before we found this mysterious Pokemon. We need to save all our strength for the true test ahead of us.", explained Cynthia as she walked up next to him.

"Well, let's get going then. We don't want to waste any more time talking around here now.", added Jasmine as she started to walk down the cliffside of the crater, with Lance and everybody else following suit, walking deeper into the beautiful landscape.

The elite group of trainers and Champions walked through the thick, dense forest that had sprouted from the crater site, staring in awe at its natural beauty the whole way through the hike. As everyone else was talking and preparing for the task ahead of them while on the walk, Sabrina was silent and kept to herself. She didn't want to tell anyone that she had met Ash and his friends back in Saffron City, and she was silent for most of the trip up the mountain to make sure she didn't spill out any secrets. As everyone was walking with each other and talking about the fight to come in the near future, Sabrina kept to herself, hoping not to attract any unwanted attention from her superiors or fellow Gym Leaders.

"Hey guys, like, you gotta see this!"

That came from the unmistakable always-bored voice of Daisy Williams, which snapped Sabrina out of her thoughts as she looked up and ran over to where Daisy was pointing to.

Sabrina looked in front of her and saw a bunch of small Pokemon wandering about the forest and surrounding lake habitats, but what struck her the most was the fact that some of these Pokemon were tiny versions of fully-evolved Pokemon, such as there being a baby Nidoqueen next to its parents near the edge of the lake. The others all seemed to be in awe at this amazing display of natural beauty located right in front of them, and the tiny Pokemon were incredibly adorable to look at, albeit from a distance. Lance then noticed a bright yellow streak flash by his eyes, and he whirled around in a circle, trying to find whatever or whoever had caused that. He was focused on that alone for a few seconds, until his eyes laid on a Pikachu peeking out from behind a tree. He motioned for the Pikachu to come over, and after a slight hesitation on the Pokemon's part, it walked slowly towards Lance and his crew, where they got to take a closer look at it and what it was doing there.

"Hey… dat's not a normal Pikachu.", interrupted Lieutenant Surge as he stepped forward to look at it more closely. "It's ear markings are arranged in a different pattern than most other ones."

"Interesting… but how could it be different? Was it born by some different section of Pikachu colonies?", asked Chuck in suspicion as he put a finger to his face, thinking to himself.

Suddenly, the Pikachu motioned for the group to follow it, and it began to run back in the other direction. The whole group was startled for a moment, before they all instantly reacted and chased after the scampering Pikachu across the edge of the massive Clarity Lake. After running around to the other side of the lake, the Pikachu stopped to catch its breath while letting Lance and his team do the same, but it began to run off towards the other edge of the crater, forcing everybody else to continue running just to keep up with the fast Pokemon. After what seemed like lasted for hours, the Pikachu stopped in front of a cave entrance, and began to walk slowly inside. It continued walking before it noticed that the others weren't following it anymore, so it just stood in the cave, waiting patiently.

"Should we… should we keep following it? I don't want to become completely exhausted once this is over…", exclaimed Morty, who already looked tired from running around the whole crater.

"We can't give up now. We have to keep going!", exclaimed Lance as he walked into the cave and started to follow the Pikachu again, with his League subordinates following suit behind him.

Once they entered the cave, Lance and his group managed to see a group of interesting-looking Pokemon all around them, including a Venusaur, Blastoise, and a Charizard with weird markings on it. Other Pokemon that were in the cave were a Gyarados, Golduck, Nidoqueen, Meowth, and many more that stared at the professional trainers.

"What's up with all these weird-looking Pokemon here?", asked Clair, who looked extremely confused at what exactly she was seeing in the cave. "Are you sure they're from some isolated sect of each species?"

Will was about to answer Clair's question, but he and everyone else in the group was interrupted by a deep voice resonating through their minds, shocking them to their very cores.

" _These Pokemon are not weird, as you say. They are clones of the original material species, which is why they are different."_ , exclaimed the strong voice, which sent the whole crowd of humans into shock.

"What the… where did that voice come from?", asked Blaine, who had spun around in circles trying to find whoever's voice had spoken in their minds at that moment.

Lance watched as the Pikachu they had been following for a while now continued to run deeper into the cave, and he decided to follow it and go inside what seemed like the deepest chamber of the cave, while the others ran in behind him.

A sliver of light from the outside managed to peek its way inside the cave's deepest chamber, and at that moment, the mysterious Pokemon inside was partly revealed to the group of over twenty Trainers.

Lance was shocked at what he was seeing the very instant that Pokemon partially stepped out of the shadows. "You're… the Pokemon. The one that I saw in the Viridian Gym.", he mumbled.

" _So you know of my origins. I see… "_ , murmured the mysterious Pokemon as he stepped out of the shadows, revealing his full form to all the Trainers present in the room.

This Pokemon had a humanoid form with a lavender body, a horned head, three-fingered hands, two-toed feet, and a purple tail stretching out from behind him. The Trainers all looked on in shock at the Pokemon, and they were surprised, as no other Pokemon they had ever seen looked like this one.

"What are… who are you, really? Can we trust you?", asked Flint suspiciously, and the Pokemon slowly moved its head to face him in the eyes.

" _Why should I trust you in the first place? I've tried my hardest to leave no marks of my previous appearances, but you always find me anyway."_ , mumbled the Pokemon to himself.

"Well, I thought that you could help us out with finding what your… creator is up to now. I'm sure you've heard of the incidents that have been occurring over the past month or so?", asked Lance.

To Lance's surprise, the Pokemon's gaze at his face narrowed extremely, surprising the Indigo Champion with his angry gaze. _"Of course I know about that… our group of clones haven't been that out of the loop."_ , exclaimed the Pokemon.

"Well, since Giovanni is leading Rainbow Rocket on these attacks, we thought that you would want… to get back at him for how he created and used you.", explained Lance.

The Pokemon was hesitant at responding for a moment. _"As I would like to get back at… Giovanni for what he did to me, I would prefer if I would not have a public presence anymore. More people would be out to find me if I revealed myself in public."_ , exclaimed the Pokemon.

"I see… can you at least do us a favor and tell us more information about what Giovanni is planning, if you're able to?", asked Lance, desperately hoping to cooperate with the unknown Pokemon.

" _I can try to scout their base and report back to you, if that is what you wish. It would aid both of my desires without affecting the other."_ , explained the mysterious Pokemon.

Lance was speechless at the fact that this Pokemon actually would agree with him, and not strike him down easily with one flick of its finger. "Thank you. But I do have one question. Who exactly are you? What's your name?", he asked.

" _My name… is Mewtwo."_ , exclaimed the Pokemon, sending waves of shock and surprise among the Trainers present in the cave room.

" _Giovanni created me from the DNA of the Mythical Pokemon, Mew, in order to create the strongest Pokemon in the world. One that could not be beaten by any ordinary Trainer."_ , finished Mewtwo.

"Well, thank you, Mewtwo. I'm happy that you have chosen to aid us in our fight against Giovanni.", exclaimed Cynthia, and Mewtwo nodded in understanding.

The Trainers decided to say their goodbyes and leave the cave, with Sabrina trailing behind, having not said an entire word during the entire encounter with Mewtwo. She didn't want to tell anyone about her knowledge of the teenagers being alive, especially not to this mysterious Mewtwo character.

" _You… come here for a second."_ , instructed Mewtwo in Sabrina's mind, causing her to whirl around and face her, which luckily nobody noticed because they all had left that chamber of the cave by the time Mewtwo communicated in Sabrina's mind.

Sabrina focused her psychic energies onto Mewtwo's psychic signature, allowing her to communicate telepathically with the psychic Pokemon. _"What do you want me for?"_ , she asked.

" _I saw through your mind, Sabrina. You know those children are still alive, and I thank you for telling me that."_ , explained Mewtwo, and the Saffron Gym Leader's eyes widened at what she heard inside her head.

" _How… how do you know about that? And why would you care?"_ , asked Sabrina in surprise, and Mewtwo looked up at the ceiling wistfully, as if he was recalling fond memories of his past.

" _When I was first created… I was upset of my creation. I thought that I was superior to other Pokemon and hated humans for what they did to me. But that boy and his friends… they helped me. They showed me that all Pokemon were alike, and it didn't matter who or what you were, it was what you did that helped make you who you were."_ , explained Mewtwo.

" _Those children who taught me… those were Ash, Misty, and Brock. I felt devastated when they were reported to be dead, and I had trouble tracing their psychic signatures because of my emotional turmoil at the time. So… thank you for telling me that they are safe."_ , finished Mewtwo.

Sabrina stood in front of the Legendary Pokemon with a surprised grin on her face, speechless at the fact that Mewtwo felt this way towards Ash, Misty, and Brock especially. _"Well, you're welcome."_

Sabrina turned around and walked out of the cave, laughing to herself. It wasn't every day that you meet an artificially cloned Pokemon made from a Mythical Pokemon's DNA that was surprisingly compassionate towards other humans. She walked out of the cave, still smiling to herself, only to be met by the cold glares of all the other Gym Leaders, Elite Four Members, and Champions all directed at her and her alone.

"Where have you been, Sabrina? We were just about to leave without you!", shouted Erika as she ran over to her friend and fellow Gym Leader.

"Well, from psychic to psychic, that Mewtwo character and I sure had an interesting conversation, that's all.", explained Sabrina as she started to walk back towards the Humvees with everybody else.

"I guess dat makes sense… but what exactly did ya talk about there? It must have been interesting, dat's for sure…", mumbled Lieutenant Surge under his breath, but Sabrina still heard his claims.

"Who said I had to tell you?"

* * *

 _ **December 24, 2002. Hoenn Region - Mauville City**_

"Okay guys, we're in room 206. Last one to reach the room has to sleep on the floor!", cried Gary as he snatched the key card from the front desk and started to run off towards the stairs, being chased after by the other guys.

The group had decided to stay in Mauville City for the night to relax in a nice bed for once, and to enjoy Christmas Eve together. They had managed to grab two big rooms for the guys and the girls, thanks to everyone's cash reserves, so each room would be packed to the brim with people.

"There's the stairs!", cried out Ash as he and Pikachu raced in front of the group, being the first ones to reach the stairwell while the others continued to run behind him.

"Hey! This is a fair fight, so no Aura involved!", hissed Brock as he tried to slam Ash while running up the stairs as fast as he could, but he found that his old friend was a lot stronger than he looked with is new Aura abilities.

This scuffle continued throughout the second floor hallway, with the guys blocking and slamming into each other to be the first to snag a bed, until they reached the door of the room. Gary tried to reach into his pockets to grab his key card for the room, but he was going too fast to successfully reach into his pocket and grab it.

Suddenly, Gary felt something being slipped out of his pocket, and his head whirled around to see Ritchie running away from him with the key card, and he swiped it on the door handle, unlocking the door so that they could enter. Ritchie gripped the door and pushed it open as fast as he could, ready to grab a spot on the bed, but that time he wasted swiping the key card allowed everyone else to crowd behind the door. They all tried to cram their heads into the room to see how many beds there were, but what they saw instead shocked them, their jaws dropping and some of them fainting onto the ground in a shock.

Max was sitting on one of the beds, reading a comic book, and he looked up at the door to see the other guys staring at him in shock, with some of them having collapsed onto the ground in utter surprise.

"What? I just teleported to inside the room and got a bed. What's wrong with that?", asked Max, which sent the others back into a frenzy to get the remaining four beds in the room, while the ones who had fainted slowly got up, trying to get a bed for themselves.

"I got this one!", shouted Ash as he ran into the room and jumped on a bed for himself, which meant that there were only three more beds left for the taking.

Ritchie surprisingly slammed Gary behind him and collapsed on the third bed, leaving Gary to sleep on the floor while he jumped on the bed.

Brock, on the other hand, had a clear path to grab the fourth bed available, so he saw the best chance to grab a nice, comfy bed, and he took it.

While everybody else was fighting by the doorway to try and get in and score a bed first, Paul had snuck in between the crowd while they were distracted, leaving Gary, Kenny, Barry, Drew, Cilan, Clemont, and Trip to take out their sleeping bags dejectedly and lie them on the floor in any open spaces they could find.

Eventually, the guys all got settled down and started to hang out and enjoy the night with everyone else in the room. Brock had turned on the TV and was flipping through the channels, Ash was meditating on his bed, with Max trying his best to replicate it, and the others were just talking, playing games, or reading books.

"Hey, Ash!", said Drew, which caused Ash's eyes to shoot open, snapping him out of his meditative state and breaking his concentration of training his Aura abilities.

"I just have a question. How did you do it?", asked Drew, and Ash raised an eyebrow in suspicion, not getting what the Pokemon Coordinator was trying to say to him.

"I mean, how did you get with Misty so easily? You've gotta tell us your secret!", continued Drew as he stood up from his sleeping bag on the floor to face Ash, who still looked confused.

"Well, I-I guess because I had known her since the start of my journey, we had been best friends for a while now, so it kinda came together naturally over time. That's the best way I can describe it, since I'm not really an expert on that kind of stuff.", mumbled Ash quietly.

Drew pondered this information for a moment, until another voice came through to him. "Why do you need to know that so badly? Do you want to get with somebody too?", asked Trip, an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"What-no! I have no idea what you're talking about!", exclaimed Drew, but he was met by increasing stares of suspicion and laughter from his other friends in the room.

"Whatever you say, Drew. I still bet you that May would be happy no matter what you do. She's practically head over heels for you!", snickered Paul, causing everybody else to burst out laughing.

Gary had fallen onto the floor from laughing so hard, and pretty much everyone else seemed to feel the same way and laugh as hard as him, much to Drew's dismay.

"Oh yeah? How are you so sure about that?", asked Drew, who looked seriously pissed off and angry at Paul and the others by now.

Paul shrugged. "Just two things. One, it's pretty much obvious that she likes you and you like her back, and two, I talk to other people. Shocker, right?", he finished.

"Whatever… believe what you want. Can we just change the subject already?", asked Drew, who was begging for a chance to escape this embarrassing conversation once and for all.

"Fine… who wants to play Truth or Dare?", asked Gary, and Drew and the others all nodded their heads in excitement. Now this was a game they could get behind to spend the night playing.

"All right. Drew, you're up first.", exclaimed Kenny, pointing a finger at Drew, who was sitting next to him. "Truth or Dare?"

Drew had a gut feeling that this wasn't going to end up well. If he picked truth, they would just nag him with questions about May, but if he picked dare, then the other guys would probably force him to do something even worse. All he had to do was pick the lesser of two evils.

"Dare."

Drew noticed Gary and the others grinning evilly after he gave his response, and the started to huddle up and whisper amongst themselves. From their expressions alone, he knew this wasn't going to be good for him at all.

* * *

"Hey, Dawn! What's with the long face?", asked Zoey, who had noticed Dawn staring wistfully at the ceiling from her bed.

Dawn had been one of the five people to score a bed when the girls reached their room for the night, along with Leaf, Serena, Misty, and May, leaving Zoey and Iris as the ones to have to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag for the night.

"I don't know… just thinking about stuff.", murmured Dawn quietly, leaving Zoey more confused than ever. She didn't expect Dawn to be so quiet and reserved at the moment, but hey, when the whole world thinks you're dead, she could have decided to switch things up.

"About what?", asked Zoey in suspicion as Dawn got off her bed and walked over to her sleeping bag.

"I just don't get Paul. One day, he actually seems like sort of a nice guy to me, but on other days he's still his usual annoyed self. What's up with him?", asked Dawn in confusion.

"Well, from the looks of it, maybe he's just conflicted about how he feels about this whole situation, especially with having to travel with us. He probably wants to open up to us, but at the same time, he's not so sure if he wants to either.", explained Zoey.

Dawn shook her head. "That's not it, Zoey. I've seen him talk with the others, and he seems pretty emotionless, but he… actually seems somewhat nicenice when talking to me. I don't understand why, though."

Zoey's eyes widened at Dawn's explanation. "Really? I didn't expect that… maybe Paul trusts you more, and he's willing to open up more to you than anybody else."

"Yeah… he does seem like a nice guy once you get to know him, but I don't really understand why he's been opening up to me more, and that's the problem.", exclaimed Dawn.

"What's this? Even more romantic drama between our little group?", asked May as she interrupted Dawn and Zoey's conversation, startling the two girls and causing them to jump back on instinct.

"It's not romantic drama, okay! Zoey and I were just talking about… new Contest strategies! That's it!", stammered Dawn, who was desperately trying to come up with a good excuse.

"Okay, jeez! No need to get so defensive!", exclaimed May as she backed away, her ears still ringing from Dawn's excessively loud voice.

"Sorry, May! I was just distracted by you interrupting me back there.", explained Dawn softly, and May nodded her head in understanding.

"Hey… do you guys hear something behind this door?", exclaimed Leaf as she pointed towards the room's front door, causing May, Dawn, and Zoey to leave their conversation and run over to where Leaf was standing.

"What are you talking about, Leaf? I don't hear anything over there.", said Misty as she leaned next to the door, but she couldn't hear any voices from the hallway in front of the door.

Suddenly, Misty heard some whispers coming from behind the front door, and she whirled back around to face the others. "I heard something too!"

The others rushed to the front door, determined to listen to what was going on behind the door, but all they could hear was some inaudible whispers from the other side of the hallway, to their dismay.

"Can anyone actually hear what they're saying?", asked Iris as she leaned in next to the door, while the others did the same but with no clear results in the end.

"I can hear some whispers, but I can't understand what they mean since whoever's there is talking really quietly.", exclaimed Dawn.

"That does it! I'll just go outside and we'll see who's actually there instead of trying to hear what they're saying!", interrupted Leaf as she walked over to the door and pulled it open, revealing the boys standing in front of the doorway, still whispering to themselves.

"What the hell are you all doing here? You didn't have to whisper in front of the door like you were plotting something back there!", shouted Leaf, which startled the other boys so much that they either jumped up in shock or backed away in fear.

Trip stepped forward to face the girls, trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. "Well, we were just making Drew do his dare where he would have to walk inside-"

"Walk inside and do what?", yelled May, causing Drew to jump back in fear again along with the other guys from May's screaming.

This time Gary walked in front of the girls, ready to finish what Trip had started to explain. "We were playing Truth or Dare and we dared Drew to go into your room and confess his undying-"

Gary stopped speaking once he noticed the eerie silence that had fallen over the hallway, and once he noticed the massive blushes on May and Drew's faces that had formed when he was talking.

"Okay, then think of other dares to do instead! You don't have to bother us like that, you know!", shouted Leaf in his face, causing the Pokemon Researcher to back off for his safety.

"Fine! Let's just go back, okay?", murmured Gary dejectedly as he and the other guys walked back to their room, their heads hung low in absolute shame.

"Man, Gary, I didn't know you could be so intimidated by Leaf back there! Coming from the oh-so-cocky Pokemon Researcher over there and all… ", explained Ritchie, but he was met with a cold glare from Gary.

"Just drop it, will you? I don't want to have to deal with that right now.", mumbled Gary as he continued to walk back to his room, his head still hung low.

Leaf watched Gary walk back to his room with his head down in shame, until she pouted and walked back inside the girls' room, an annoyed expression on her face.

"Arceus, Leaf. You didn't have to strip Gary of all his pride, you know.", commented Dawn, which made Leaf rush back outside to see her old friend still walking back to his room in absolute shame.

"I just did what was necessary to get him away from here. I'm a G-Men agent… and so I have no room for emotional conflicts and decisions.", explained Leaf, but her hesitation made everything clear for the other girls in the room.

"C'mon, Leaf. Don't be like that. You're allowed to feel certain ways about things and not punish yourself for them.", reassured Dawn.

Leaf was silent as she laid down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling with a concerned expression on her face, and after a few seconds, the other girls left her alone as she continued to stare at the ceiling. She didn't mean to hurt Gary's feelings and pride like that, but she thought that it was the only way to make him stop doing those inappropriate dares. As a G-Men agent, she was supposed to do things without emotions that could hold her back from her true potential, but while on this mission, she had seen that emotions were what carried these people through their journeys and strived them to accomplish their dreams, like Ash and Gary.

Maybe Leaf's training under Lance didn't exactly connect to what she was seeing from her new friends now, but she didn't want her emotions being able to hold her back in the long run against Team Rainbow Rocket. Either way, she would have to wait and see where her opinions and feelings lied once this was all over.

And to be honest, she was perfectly content with that.

* * *

There's the end of this chapter! Unfortunately, I'll be on a brief hiatus for the next month or so, as I'll be busy during the summer and I might need to think of new ideas on how to improve the story. Either way, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	17. XVI - Family Matters

**I'm back, everyone! After over a month-long hiatus, I'm officially back and ready to keep working on this story! I really appreciate all the new people who've favorited, followed, or reviewed this story in the past month, and I hope more and more people will join them in the coming weeks and months as more chapters will be released then.  
**

 **Now, onto the story!**

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 121**_

Drew's eyes flickered open as the first faint rays of sunlight drifted into the windows of his tent, and his gaze was focused onto the tent ceiling for a moment as he wondered about the day ahead of him.

As he sat up in his sleeping bag, he looked around the tent, where he saw Max fast asleep and curled up in his sleeping bag, but May was also starting to wake up because of the sunlight drifting inside the tent.

Drew watched as May's eyes slowly opened and stared right back at him, causing both of them to blush as they continued to look each other in the eyes once May sat up in her sleeping bag.

"Morning, Drew… ", mumbled May as she raised her arms above her head and stretched them, ready to start the day ahead of her.

Drew smiled back at her as he continued to sit down in his sleeping bag next to May, with Max still being fast asleep in the corner.

"You know what?", asked Drew, who still had a huge grin on his face and was now staring wistfully at the tent window, leaving May excited for what he was going to say next.

"I'm kind of glad we all got stuck on this trip together, honestly. I got to know everybody a lot better, and I think we've become better friends because of this.", explained Drew.

He was mostly telling the truth to May, but he left out one important detail in his explanation for good reason. He knew he liked May, but he didn't want to just tell her that right out of the blue.

So far, his plan was to wait a bit longer for the perfect moment to tell her. He had been traveling with May for almost two years now, so they had gotten extremely close because of that, and it was only a matter of time before he decided to make his move.

"It's been really nice out here for me too, and I'm glad I got to meet everybody else as well.", exclaimed May wistfully as she got out of her sleeping bag and sat on top of it, being followed by Drew shortly after.

A few minutes of silence passed inside the tent, with May and Drew keeping to themselves while Max was still passed out on the other side of the tent, but their silence was broken by the sound of the tent zipper opening up, startling the two Coordinators.

"Good morning, guys! You'll never guess where we're close to right now!", exclaimed Ash as he poked his head through the tent door, causing May and Drew to turn around to face him.

Ash then turned to look at Max, who was still fast asleep despite all the noise Ash had been making as he opened the tent door. He then turned back to May, who just shrugged at the sight of her sleeping brother as she walked out of the tent along with Drew.

May followed Ash to the edge of their campsite, where there was a cliff that stood near a valley filled with two great rivers. She then saw everybody else standing on the edge of the cliff, supposedly looking at the view in front of them.

What surprised her from this scene was Brock's facial expression, which looked like a mixture of surprise and fear at the same time as he grit his teeth. May ran up to Brock, and her eyes widened at the sight that she saw in front of her.

There was an island in between the two rivers, and it was connected to both sides of the mainland by a long suspension bridge. The island and the mainland surrounding it looked to be jam-packed with buildings and nature at the same time, presenting a city full with technology and natural beauty as well.

After a moment of thought, May's eyes widened in shock. She had been to this city before, once with Ash, Brock, and Max, and they had even witnessed a battle between Rayquaza and Deoxys right on that island.

May turned to Brock and Ash, who seemed to share the same expression of surprise as her, but with an equal amount of fear and worry thrown in as well. They might have changed their appearance to mask themselves, but you could never be so sure in a city that you had already been to and saved once before.

May looked to her right as Drew walked up to her, and his eyes widened in shock at the city below him. He looked like he was about to faint on the spot, but he seemed to stand strong in the face of all that stood in front of him.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Why did it have to be now, of all times!", shouted Drew to nobody in particular, his head facing the clear blue sky of another unnaturally hot day in the middle of winter.

"Drew… what are you talking about?", asked May in concern. "What are you trying to say?", she repeated, extremely worried for her close friend.

"I'm not trying to say anything, May.", explained Drew.

"I just have to face my past, once and for all."

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

"We tried talking to Petrel again for more information, but he still won't budge at all. It's been eighteen days, and all that he's revealed to us is that the main Rainbow Rocket base is on some random island.", grumbled Cynthia to herself as she walked towards Lance, who was sitting in the lobby of Professor Oak's lab.

"He'll crack open to us eventually. It's just a matter of time before he gives us all the information we need about RR.", reassured Lance as he looked up from his laptop.

"I've also received word from Steven and Wallace in the Ever Grande G-Men base. Archie and Maxie have been traveling the region with their own teams of Grunts, and they don't know where they could strike next."

"I'm sure that the Hoenn G-Men can take care of it. We have other problems in Kanto and Johto that we have to deal with first before we turn our attention there.", explained Lance.

"Well, Giovanni hasn't been doing anything that big in Kanto or Johto, so maybe he's maximizing his forces in Hoenn at the moment, and we all should be prepared for an attack there.", chirped Diantha as she walked into the room.

"We can't move all our forces to Hoenn, because Rainbow Rocket might strike here if Kanto or Johto is unarmed and isn't defended. We have to keep troops in all regions so that Giovanni won't strike at an unprotected one.", exclaimed Lance sternly.

"I see. I'll tell the Kalos G-Men to stay at their posts for now, and you should do the same for Sinnoh, Cynthia.", exclaimed Diantha.

"I'll be right on it.", finished Cynthia as she walked out of the room, leaving Lance and Diantha to themselves.

"I sure hope Steven and Wallace are all right in Hoenn.", murmured Diantha. "I wouldn't want to see them being defeated by the likes of Maxie or Archie. I know you've defeated them before, Lance, but are you sure we can do it again?"

Lance turned to look at Diantha, a concerned expression on his face. "It wasn't just me, you know. I had help."

Diantha perked up, and Lance continued talking. "I encountered Ash Ketchum and his friends over in Hoenn while I was working undercover for Team Magma in January 2000. They assisted me in defeating Team Aqua and Team Magma and rescuing Groudon and Kyogre from captivity."

"So he did this before… ", murmured Diantha to herself, but Lance had managed to hear what she was saying.

"What do you mean?", asked Lance.

"Ash was involved in the Kalos Crisis back in November, but what seemed strange was that he felt so commanding and normal towards the situation, almost as if he had faced a situation of that magnitude before that point.", explained Diantha.

"I see now… but I hope Steven and Wallace succeed as well. I wouldn't want them to be defeated without any help, which is exactly why they have all of the Hoenn G-Men to protect the region.", said Lance.

"They have to win, and we all have to win this fight. If we don't, then the whole world is Giovanni's for the taking with Rainbow Rocket at his side.", exclaimed Diantha.

Lance nodded sternly. He knew he had to win against Rainbow Rocket, to avenge the deaths of all those teenagers he had let Giovanni kill, and he knew that he would use all the help he could get from the other Champions and their G-Men teams.

"Then that's all we can hope for right now.", finished Lance.

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - LaRousse City**_

"So… you used to live here?", asked Ritchie surprisingly.

"Yeah… my father was a high-ranking official in the city council and the head of the Battle Tower here.", explained Drew.

"The only thing I ever heard about this place since I left four years ago was about some emergency involving a Rayquaza and some kind of alien Pokemon from outer space. I didn't read much into it, but I did see the news report afterward.", he finished.

Ash, Brock, and May all turned to look at each other at that very moment, their faces having an extremely surprised expression, but they decided not to say anything about that incident for now.

Drew silently started to walk ahead of the rest of the group, his head facing down at the ground as he moved closer down the hill to the technological city.

"Do you think the city's cameras will recognize us? We have been here before, so it could be a possibility?", whispered Ash worriedly into Brock's ear.

Brock shrugged. "Hopefully we've changed our appearances enough that the camera would ask for new ID cards once we enter the city, so we'll be set if that happens.", he exclaimed.

"Wait… this city gives you your own ID card? How advanced is this place?", asked Misty, who had jumped into the conversation.

For the past few days, Misty had removed her classic side ponytail and had begun to wear her hair down onto her neck, which ended just below her shoulders. She was a little shy to reveal it at first, but with Ash's help and encouragement, she was able to be confident and not be worried about what people could think.

"Yeah. They take a picture of your face and put it on an ID card, which can be used for validating yourself and buying things. Money is basically irrelevant there!", exclaimed Brock.

"That sounds amazing, but do you think we'll have to give our names for the ID cards?", asked Cilan as he walked toward Ash, Brock, and Misty.

"Give me a sec… ", mumbled Ash as he took out his backpack and started rummaging through it, looking through five and a half year's worth of stuff he had collected on his journey, until he pulled out a small card.

The card was white with red highlights on both sides, and it had a photo of Ash in his Hoenn outfit with some information about him, including his name.

"I guess it does have our names, but how did they get access to it?", asked Brock in confusion.

"From what you're saying, the city probably verifies the name that you give them in the worldwide Trainer database that's managed by the G-Men. If that's true, then we can't back up the names we give to whoever makes these ID cards for the city.", interrupted Leaf.

"Wait a minute!", shouted Kenny. "Why do we even have to go into the city in the first place? Can't we just go around it?"

"We can't. This is the only way to the other side of the mainland, whether we like it or not. We'll have to go through the city and pray we don't get spotted by any security cameras or security robots.", grimaced Drew.

"We have to get to Lilycove City at least if we have any hope of stopping Archie and Maxie. I say we at least take the risk and try and pass through the city.", exclaimed Serena.

"There's a high chance we'll get caught, but we have to take the risk. I agree with Serena.", added Misty with encouragement.

"I'm still not sure… I would be instantly recognized, and if they find me, then they'll find all of us. It's high risk and high reward, but the risk might end up being too much.", argued Drew.

"We have to go! If there aren't any other ways to Lilycove City on foot, then we have to go through here! Who cares if I've been there before! We at least have to try!"

Drew raised an eyebrow at Ash's last statement. What was he meaning when he said that he had been to LaRousse City before? Knowing Ash's luck, he was probably the one who stopped the whole Deoxys incident with May, Max, and Brock.

"Wait… what are you arguing about again?", came a voice behind the group, and everyone turned around to see Max walking back from his tent, which he sent back into Clemont's backpack.

Drew repeated the extent of their conversation to Max, and the rookie trainer was silent for a few moments, seemingly discussing in his head about what his opinion was on this stressful situation. After a minute or two of more silence and anticipation, Drew listened to what Max had to say about his opinion.

"I say we do this."

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - LaRousse City**_

Johnathan Hayden was a different man.

While most other residents of the city were out buying gifts for New Year's Eve in the full swing of the holiday season, he remained in his mansion to continue his business maneuvers with his clients despite the holiday celebrations around him.

He had done the same exact thing for Christmas Eve six days earlier, and he had no intention of changing his methods once the year rolled over into 2003. He had a Battle Tower to manage, and city council affairs to deal with as well.

He rarely left his mansion anymore to go around through the city, as the only other place people could find him was at the top floor of the Battle Tower, where he was on some days to conduct business and watch battles.

His wife had passed away a few years after their only child was born, and he had been emotionally wrecked after that, choosing to stay in his mansion or the Battle Tower, and mostly neglecting his young son except with his studies. He wouldn't tell anyone that to their face, since he had an enormous public image to keep.

Because Johnathan had seemingly treated his son badly for years, he decided to run away in the summer of 1998, causing more emotional turmoil to fall on the middle-aged businessman.

Was it his fault that his son ran away from home? Maybe it was since Andrew had stated that he had pushed him to far with his studies and work, but his son shouldn't have ran away if he wanted to make things right with his father.

He had heard news from close friends and family members about his son in Pokemon Contests, the very same thing that he had opposed him from doing when he asked to get a Trainer's license, but he had barely cared at that point.

Around a month ago, he had caught a news report saying that his son had died with a number of other teenagers, but the only thing he did about it was watch a video of the funeral, but a few of his extended family members actually showed up in Pallet Town.

He opened up a conference call with one of his biggest investors, Professor Lund. He had been a big part of that so-called Deoxys incident a few years ago while Alexander lodged safely in his mansion, near the city park.

"Professor, I've received word that more Trainers than ever are stopping in this city. Why is that?", asked Mr. Hayden.

"Well, Champion Steven decided to postpone this season's Hoenn League challenge, so many Trainers have decided to rent long-term rooms in the Pokemon Center and take on the Battle Tower.", exclaimed Professor Lund.

"I see. I hadn't heard of that announcement.", explained Mr. Hayden.

Professor Lund shook his head. Johnathan Hayden was a great man and an incredible businessman, but his social skills were next to none, ever since he decided to confine himself in his mansion or his office at the Battle Tower. No wonder he hadn't heard of Steven's announcement, especially because it was at his son's own funeral that he hadn't even bothered to show up to in the first place.

He knew his son Tory and his friends knew Ash Ketchum and his friends from the time they were in the city, and they had watched the funeral, but he wasn't even sure that John had even bothered to watch it at all.

Mr. Hayden was about to ask Professor Lund a question, but a pop-up window appeared on his screen, and he came face-to-face with the city's Chief of Security, who looked extremely shocked.

"Mr. Hayden… Professor Lund… you two have to see this.", exclaimed the chief, who pressed a few keys on his keyboard, revealing a security tape from the North Bridge that led into South City.

"My colleagues in South City picked this up a few minutes ago.", finished the chief as he played the tape, which was silent but showed a group of people moving across the bridge.

The camera zoomed in on the group of people. All of them were wearing either cloaks or hoodies to protect their faces, but one person lifted down his hood, revealing bright green hair and a face Mr. Hayden immediately recognized.

"Andrew? Why would he end up back here? I thought he was out doing that contest stuff that he went on and on about.", asked Mr. Hayden.

Professor Lund and the chief were both left speechless. Did this guy have amnesia or something? They stared at each other through the screen worriedly before the professor continued to speak.

"John, don't you remember what happened a few weeks ago? Andrew was said to have died in an accident. But if he's shown on camera just a few minutes ago, then there's no doubt that he's alive.", exclaimed the professor.

"And if Andrew's alive, then that means the others are alive as well.", finished Professor Lund as he stood up from his desk chair.

Johnathan's face lit up in shock as Professor Lund finished explaining. So his son had decided to return. He didn't know if his son wanted to see him again, but he wanted a chance to really know why Andrew ran away all those years ago.

"Just send in some security robots to transport them to my mansion. I need to see my son again.", exclaimed Mr. Hayden, a worried expression on his face.

The chief of security nodded his head. "You got it, Mr. Hayden. They'll be yours in a few hours."

* * *

"This is it, guys. This is the only way onto the other side of the mainland,.", exclaimed Drew as he motioned his hand in front of him to show a suspension bridge, with a few cars going across it.

"We can reach the other side by crossing the bridge's full length, so we have to move quickly, and not attract attention at the same time.", finished Drew.

"I sure hope we don't get spotted there, either. I know South City are right on the other side of the mainland, and even that's technically considered a suburb of LaRousse as well.", exclaimed Brock, who was looking at his PokeGear.

"Don't we know a few people from South City as well?", whispered Max to Ash, and the raven-haired trainer nodded grimly. Max shook his head and continued to walk with the group across the bridge.

The bridge they were walking on was a very sturdy suspension bridges that could carry six lanes of cars going back and forth. Drew took off his hood for a moment to scout bridge, then quickly put it back on again, grimacing.

"This still doesn't look good. We could be spotted by anyone in the area!", exclaimed Drew as he returned, pointing back towards the bridge, which seemed to be out in the open right next to South City.

"We have to move fast. Let's go!", exclaimed Ash as he started to walk onto the bridge, his hood firmly covering his face as he was followed by the rest of the group across the bridge's walkway.

The group continued to walk on the bridge's walkway, encountering stares from other pedestrians, but the strangers just continued to walk, not bothered to alert anyone else about the group of people all wearing hoods.

Suddenly, Ash was stopped short in his tracks by what looked like a maintenance robot, busy monitoring the bridge walkway seemingly looking for any trash on the ground to pick up.

The robot's arm then came flying out of it's open socket, revealing a white flag attached at the end of the metal arm. Ash jumped back in surprise and bumped into Drew, who tried to get a better look at what was stopping them.

Ash listened as a hissing sound seemed to emanate from the white flag, and, he could have sworn he saw a faint mist around him as his eyes closed and he felt himself fall down onto the ground unconscious, seemingly with everyone else.

* * *

May's eyes flickered open, until shock registered and she shot up from the ground, ready to challenge anybody who brought her inside this unknown building.

She looked around the room she was in, and she saw the unconscious bodies of her friends stewed around the marble floor, along with noticing the large grand staircase located just in front of her.

May turned around and found a clock, and she checked the time with confusion. It was only a half an hour or so since she last checked the time, so whoever had knocked her unconscious couldn't have taken her very far from the city bridge, so they were definitely still inside the city limits.

"Uh… what the… ", mumbled a voice behind May, instantly startling her from her deep and stressful thoughts.

She turned around to see who was making that noise, and to her surprise, Drew was sitting up on the shiny marble floor, his eyes wide open in shock, yet they also seemed to be full of despair and anguish as well.

"No… how did we end up back here?", exclaimed Drew, who looked like he was about to burst into tears.

"I come all this way, doing everything that I did for the past four years, just for Arceus to lead me back here? Do I really deserve this?", cried out Drew, his head looking up at the ceiling.

May had never seen Drew act like this before, so this new predicament was definitely serious because it showed a change in Drew's usual laid-back and carefree attitude when faced with most other problems with the others on this journey.

She walked over to try and talk to Drew, but he held up a hand in an attempt to stop her once he noticed her approaching him when he needed to figure this out by himself.

"May, I'm sorry for this, but I need to do this on my own. You would do the same thing if you were in my shoes right now.", explained Drew as he ran ahead of May, towards the grand staircase in front of them.

May was powerless to stop Drew as he raced up the stairs and continued to run onto the second floor, almost as if he had been in this house before and had memorized its layout of rooms.

May sat down angrily on the floor in front of the staircase. She didn't want Drew to go alone because she was worried for him, but she felt that he was already too far gone in this gigantic mansion for her to try and find him.

* * *

Dawn opened her eyes and found herself looking down on a marble floor that she herself was lying right on top of. She slowly pushed herself up off the floor and looked around at her surroundings, where she saw May sitting at the bottom of the staircase in front of her.

She then noticed her friends all lying down on the ground, but she could hear some people starting to wake up and regain consciousness. She helped them get off the ground easily, and pretty soon everyone else was up again.

"Wait a minute. Where's Drew?", asked Brock, breaking the quiet conversations that had been going on for a few minutes.

"I… I don't know. He and I regained consciousness at around the same time, but he ran off up those stairs so quickly. It was almost as if he knew where they led to.", explained May.

"Maybe this is where he used to live… ", mumbled Brock to himself as he looked around the large room he was in.

The room had lots of marble on the floor, stairs, and columns, along with stone walls and lush carpeting that covered parts of the floor and the stairs as well, signifying that whoever owned this home was rich enough to afford all of these expensive materials in their house.

"He did say that his dad was pretty rich this morning, right?", asked Kenny. "This is probably what he meant by that."

Suddenly, Leaf shut off her X-Transceiver and walked over to the end of the staircase, where May and the others were."If this is Drew's old house, then we're in deep trouble."

"If this is Drew's house, then somebody's found out about us and where we were this morning, so they had the time to knock us out and bring us here, right to Drew's father.", finished Leaf.

"Then what are we doing? We have to go find him!", cried May, with tears starting to fall on her face.

"Okay. Let's split up into a few groups to search each floor. Just call the rest of us if one of you finds him. If he's with his father, then wait for us to arrive so we can form a plan to get him out of there.", explained Gary.

"You guys ready?", asked Ash, a determined expression on his face.

The others nodded and began to split up into small groups, racing around the gigantic mansion to search for Drew, and hopefully not get spotted by anyone else again.

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - Ever Grande City**_

Steven sighed as he put down his phone and stared out at the view from his office window, a look of discontent set on his face.

He had flew back to Hoenn along with Wallace over ten days ago, and had quickly got back into his daily routine of being the Champion of Hoenn and the commander of Hoenn's G-Men unit, not to mention all the problems that came with both of those positions.

But he already seemed to miss living out in Professor Oak's second floor with the other Champions and their distinct personalties, from Alder's laziness to Lance's intense style of leadership. It almost was like a small community, and now Steven was back to his normal life, miles away from Kanto.

Wallace had gone to his home in Sootopolis City to relax for a while and to consult with some city elders about the current situation with Archie and Maxie, while Steven was back to being the most stressed person in all of Hoenn due to all the emails and notices he'd missed over the few weeks he was away in Pallet Town.

He looked at the view of Ever Grande City from his office at the top floor of the Pokemon League building, and he could even see Route 128 far off in the distance, its sparkling water shining from down below.

Steven knew Archie and Maxie were both out somewhere inside of Hoenn's borders, and it fell on him and Wallace to stop them from destroying the region for the glory of Rainbow Rocket. If the residents of Hoenn wanted to continue living their lives with the natural beauty of the ocean or the land around them, then it was Steven's responsibility to keep that, and that was the cause of his immense stress.

The atmosphere back in Pallet Town was so laid-back and carefree when he and the other Champions weren't planning their next objective for the conflict against Rainbow Rocket, which was so different from the organized and disciplined life he'd experienced since he was a kid, living in Rustboro City with his father's strict way of life.

All Steven could do right now would be directing his G-Men units to areas in Hoenn to try and ambush Maxie and Archie, instead of fighting on the front lines like when he was with Lance and the others in Vermillion City. It just wasn't the same now once he was back at Ever Grande City, his time in Pallet Town unfortunately finished.

He had exchanged calls with Lance, Cynthia, and the other Champions for a while now ever since he returned to Hoenn, but it just didn't feel the same without them in the same room, working together against Giovanni and his army of Grunts.

Steven walked back to his desk and opened his computer, and after looking through a few spreadsheets and sources, his PokeNav Plus caller app started to ring. He pulled the device out of his pocket and accepted the call, which was from one of his G-Men commanders.

" _Steven, Unit 12 has picked up some chatter from outside of Lilycove City. Would you like me to send you the decoded transcripts?"_ , asked the commander.

Steven pondered what to do for a moment before responding. "Just send me a copy and I'll look over it. I'll call back once I finish reading it.", he exclaimed as he disconnected from the call.

He moved over to his email inbox, where an unread email was waiting for him. Steven clicked on the file and began to read the deciphered text in front of him. The message was a Rainbow Rocket message file that had been intercepted by one of his G-Men teams, and it was a message from a Rainbow Rocket officer to his comrade back in Kanto.

All that the transcript contained was a progress report of the officer's mission in Hoenn under Maxie, who had recently been installed as a Rainbow Rocket admin, traveling the region and looking for the whereabouts of the region's famous Legendary Pokemon. Steven was surprised when the report mentioned them failing to capture enough "light" for Jirachi, which was supposedly their new goal now.

Another detail that surprised the Hoenn Champion was that even though the message was from a few days earlier, Maxie's team was already near Lilycove City, which was dangerously close to Hoenn's eastern ocean routes and where he was right now in Ever Grande City.

If Archie's team of Grunts was progressing through the region at the same rate as Maxie, then Steven, Wallace, and the Hoenn Elite Four would have to fight on two fronts against two different Rainbow Rocket factions, splitting their forces in half against two very strong enemies.

Steven turned on his PokeNav Plus and dialed the number of the G-Men commander who had messaged him earlier. Hopefully his G-Men forces would be able to hold off Maxie and Archie, and Steven, Wallace, and their Elite Four would join the conflict if necessary.

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - LaRousse City**_

Drew noticed the hallway start to curve before he came to its end, and he swerved left right as the turn began to form in the hall. Once he finished turning left, he looked down the hallway, only to be filled with more disappointment.

He had been running around his old house for a while now, trying to remember where his father's old office was. Since he hadn't been inside the mansion for over four years, he barely remembered the layout of the house, such as where his dad's office was.

He knew time was running out and he would have to find and confront his dad as soon as possible, but he couldn't find his dad for the life of him. Drew knew that his dad was usually working in his office, but he didn't remember where exactly it was in the large mansion.

Drew continued to run to the end of the hallway, until he stopped dead in his tracks. He faintly remembered the back wall being just a wall, but now there were a set of stairs leading down from a hole in the ceiling, which looked recently made, probably in the past four years after Drew left.

"Here goes nothing… ", mumbled Drew as he took a deep breath and slowly creeped up the stairs, the suspense and intensity growing as he climbed up each step towards the floor above.

Drew's jaw dropped once he walked up enough steps that let him see what was going on on this seemingly unknown floor. He saw his father sitting across the room behind a gigantic desk and an equally large computer setup, not to mention the bed and the nightstand that were also in the new floor.

The floor seemed to be right below the roof of the mansion, with Drew being able to see the bottom of the roof from his position on the last few steps. Taking another look around the items strewn around the room, he managed to figure that his dad had pretty much closed himself off to this room, cutting off contact to the rest of the city.

Drew watched as his father seemed to read some more emails on his computer, not bothering to even look behind him or get up from his chair to do anything other than be on his computer the whole day. He honestly felt bad for his old man, who had turned out like this after he ran away four years ago, not even bothering to check on how his father was doing in his absence.

Suddenly, Drew felt like he should go up and try to talk to his father, maybe to try and make amends in their rocky relationship, which sounded like the right thing to do in the long run if he wanted to keep a good relationship with his father.

He was about to climb the final few steps to fully reach the top floor until he heard running footsteps from the floor below him. He whirled around to face the bottom of the stairs as fast as he could, searching frantically for whoever had made those sounds.

He slowly creeped back down the stairs, trying his hardest not to alert his father to his presence as he was walking down the stairs to the floor below, determined to try and find whoever was making those footsteps so they wouldn't disturb him and his agenda for the situation with his dad.

* * *

Misty looked at the stairs leading up to the secret fourth floor, watching as Drew slowly walked downstairs, looking around suspiciously. She crouched more behind the door she was hiding behind, and she saw Ash and Brock's worried expressions as well when she saw them in their hiding spots close by.

"Psst! Drew!", whispered Misty towards the Pokemon Coordinator, who's head shot up, alert at the sound of Misty's voice.

She stood up a little more to grab his attention, and his eyes widened once he noticed her standing behind the door. He slowly walked over to where she was standing, finally able to trust her.

"What did you see up there?", asked Misty in fear.

Drew sighed. "My dad. He's like a recluse in there, and I don't think he ever wants to come out. I can't believe that I caused this to happen… ', he murmured under his breath.

"That's really bad… maybe you can try and talk to him about it, since he already knows that you're alive.", exclaimed Misty, trying to encourage her friend.

"I know, but I can't just yet. I ran away from here for a reason, but I don't know if my father's changed enough to forget why.", explained Drew.

"Okay. You can wait for the rest of us to arrive if you want.", reassured Misty, trying to encourage Drew to make some amends with his father.

He nodded his head slowly. He wanted to make amends with his dad, but he didn't want to risk entering back into his troubled relationship with his father and having to relive the first ten years of his life all over again. He didn't want to go through that again, and that was why he didn't want to risk that decision.

"Ash! Brock! You can come out now.", said Misty.

Drew turned around to see Ash and Brock walking out into the hallway from behind a nearby column, and he watched as they continued to walk towards her and Misty, sheepish grins on their faces.

"I thought we were done there for sure! Good thing we were sneaky enough to get past the guards.", exclaimed Brock as he stopped to catch his breath.

"It's a good thing that we're so good at hiding, or else you would have spotted us instantly, Drew.", continued Ash.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Has anyone ever told you that your ego needs to be put down a notch?", she asked playfully.

"Yeah, I get that all the time. Now, where were we before that whole situation appeared?", asked Ash.

"Basically, my dad's a depressed recluse that hasn't left that room in ages. We should probably get everybody else over here before you start rushing into this whole mess.", explained Drew.

"I'm on it.", chirped Brock as he flipped open his PokeGear and started scrolling through his contacts, ready to alert the others.

While Brock was calling the others, Ash and Misty both heard the sound of footsteps from the end of the hallway with their Aura-enhanced senses. They both spun around at the same time towards the doors, ready to fight whoever was intruding their presence.

The door swung open slowly to reveal Kenny, who jumped back in shock as he noticed Ash and Misty charging up multiple Aura Spheres and Water Pulses right in his face.

"Sorry, Kenny. I didn't see you there!", greeted Ash sheepishly once he realized Kenny was standing in front of him, and the Aura Sphere he had been building up slowly dissipated back into his body.

"It's all right. I was just busy looking for Drew, but from the looks of it, I'm in the right place.", exclaimed Kenny as he walked towards the small group.

"We're going to need everyone's help for this situation, so could you help call the others along with Brock? It'll help everyone get here faster.", asked Misty.

Kenny nodded his head and turned on his Poketch, looking through his contacts list until he landed on Dawn's number

"Might as well start with calling Dawn over anyone else… ", Kenny mumbles as he clicked on he number and called her, ready to tell her and the others about where they were and what was going on.

* * *

Dawn shuddered as she felt the cold air blast from the air conditioner once she pushed the door open to another unknown room in the mansion. She huddled her arms close to her body in an attempt to keep body heat, but the air conditioner seemed to be on full power even in the middle of December despite the recently hot weather.

After splitting up from the others, Dawn had decided to explore the floor above they had woken up in, searching through all the rooms she could find in order to find Drew. After searching through a few guest and rec rooms which were completely empty, she decided to see if the room at the end of the hall was open, which it was.

Dawn took a quick look around the room, noticing the dusty furniture and items strewn all around the old-looking carpet. There was a large bed in one of the corners, with a desk and a dresser nearby, along with a giant bookshelf that spanned the room's entire height and was filled to the brim with books.

She walked around the room for a little while, noticing how dusty everything was and how it looked like nobody had been there for years, until she heard the doors creak open behind her. She whirled around quickly, until she stopped short once she realized who had opened them.

Paul was standing in front of the double doors, his arms crossed frustratingly as he looked around the dusty bedroom before his eyes fell on Dawn from across the room. He put his arms down as he walked over to her as Dawn looked on in confusion.

"Looks like Drew over here had a nice place. Too bad nobody else has stepped foot in it in over five years.", commented Dawn as she saw Paul walking closer to her, eager to strike up a conversation.

Dawn noticed a name tag on top of the dresser with the name "Andrew Hayden" on it, confirming Paul's comments that this was Drew's bedroom when he was a kid.

"It looks nice, but he's obviously not in here. We should move out and look through the other rooms quickly if we want to find him fast.", exclaimed Paul.

"You can search around on your own, you know. You don't have to hold yourself back by searching with me or anyone else.", said Dawn.

Paul shook his head. "If I go alone, then I'll be looking through the mansion at a much slower rate if I go with someone else. If we go together, then we'll be searching through the rooms at twice the speed than one person searching by themselves.", he explained.

Dawn raised an eyebrow in surprise. It wasn't every day that you saw Paul actually be willing to cooperate with somebody else, much less her of all people, but here she was, witnessing a miracle unfold right in front of her. Either way, she decided that she would take the offer with stride, not wanting to go alone if she had the chance to search for Drew with Paul.

"Let's just get out of here first.", said Dawn as she walked towards the doors, pushing them open and welcoming the much less cold air from back inside the hallway as Paul walked out beside her into the hallway.

"Wait… I think I've looked through this entire hallway. The bedroom was the last room that I needed to look through.", commented Dawn, but Paul silently pointed to the right, where the floor curved into a new hallway.

"You take the room closest to the left. I'll search the room right across from it.", explained Paul as he pointed to the two rooms near him and Dawn. She was about to run into the room on the right, until her Poketch started to ring loudly.

Paul stopped short and ran back to Dawn, who was busy answering the call. He grimaced once Kenny's face appeared on Dawn's Poketch screen, but he continued to stand next to her and listen to what Kenny was trying to say.

"Dawn! You need to get up to the third floor! We found Drew!", exclaimed Kenny, until he saw Paul standing right next to his old friend, his arms crossed as he looked at the screen.

"All right. We'll be there as soon as we can!", said Dawn enthusiastically as she began to run to the nearest flight of stairs she could remember, with Paul following suit behind her.

If the others had really found Drew, then they might have found his father as well, which Dawn had not seen during her time in the mansion at all. All she and Paul could hope for was that Drew was safe, and they could get out of here as quickly as possible until things became even worse.

* * *

Dawn and Paul continued to run around the third floor of the mansion, having no idea where they were. They looked around the hallway they were in with desperation, until they spotted Ash motioning them towards him and the others.

"Finally, you're here. Now we can get this thing started!", exclaimed Ash.

He was standing next to everybody else who had arrived before Dawn and Paul as they walked over to the others and stood in front of them.

"All right. So what's really going on then?", asked Paul sternly.

May motioned for Drew to continue, almost as if she was encouraging him to speak up to the rest of his friends. After a few seconds of hesitation, he gave in to her and began talking.

"My dad wasn't exactly the most caring person on the planet, especially after my mom died when I was young. He was always focused on my studies and he wanted me to succeed him in his business, which I did not want to do.", explained Drew.

"As I grew older, I wanted nothing more than to become a Trainer and eventually a successful Coordinator, but my dad refused to let me even think about that possibility once I told him about my dreams.", he continued.

"Around four and a half years ago, when I was ten, I started to form a plan to run away from home with Roselia and start competing in Contests.", exclaimed Drew, leaving the others full of suspense for what would happen next.

"So, I secretly applied for a Trainer's license from the class of April 1998 and surprisingly won. I took a train to Littleroot Town with Roselia, got my license, and made my way towards Rustboro City to compete in the Contest that was being held there soon. I hadn't been back home since then… until now.", finished Drew.

After he finished his story, Drew looked around at everybody's faces, which were full of sympathy and sadness for what he had to experience as a kid. He put his head down in embarrassment, but the silence was quickly interrupted.

"Wow… I never knew you had to deal with all that as a kid, Drew. I could have helped if you told me earlier… ", said May, almost on the verge of tears.

"Thanks, but it doesn't really matter now. All I have to do now is try and talk to my dad, but I'm just worried he would still hate me for running away and not being able to fulfill his wishes for me.", confessed Drew.

"You can't leave here without doing it, Drew. I bet you would immediately regret not talking to your dad if you had the opportunity to make things right.", exclaimed Gary.

"Even if you might not believe in yourself, Drew, we all believe in you and that you can do this.", chimed Ash.

"Yeah. We'll be with you all the way, and you can count on that.", added Iris.

Drew looked at his friends, and he truly realized that he had their support from their determined yet supportive facial expressions.

He knew all of the others would help him out whenever he was down, and they would do anything to get him back on his feet if he was ever brought down by anything.

"Thanks, guys… I really appreciate it. Thank you for everything.", exclaimed Drew, a huge grin on his face.

"Now, if you would excuse me, I have to make things right.", he finished as he turned around and walked up the stairs, towards his father.

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 120**_

"Are you sure this is the right place, boss?", asked a RR Grunt as he walked over to the small cave Maxie was standing in front of.

"Yes. I have no doubt in my mind that this is the Ancient Tomb, where Registeel is rumored to have lived for centuries, asleep until he would be awoken one day. I will awake Registeel and gain its light, allowing Giovanni to have the power of Steel on his side!", cackled Maxie hysterically.

The Grunt backed away in fear. His boss might be an incredibly insane sociopath who tried to control Groudon once before, but he was still getting a paycheck each month for this, so he had to make some money even if he had to serve under an insane boss.

"You three! Ready the machine and enter the cave. If Registeel is not there, alert me immediately.", instructed Maxie as he pushed a group of three Grunts inside the dark cave, and tossed them a cylindrical machine.

"And you! Observe the process and make sure they're doing it correctly. We want to get this done as fast as possible! Fufufufu…", finished Maxie as he pointed to the Grunt standing next to him.

The Grunt followed his three comrades into the cave and watched as they got to work on their mission inside the Ancient Tomb. He stood near the entrance as the three Grunts went near the center of the room to start searching for Registeel and light from the area.

"Registeel's not here, boss! But according to this device here, there's some remaining light sources that we can harvest for the Steel type.", exclaimed one of the Grunts as he held up the cylindrical device.

"Okay. You're clear to start collecting.", exclaimed the solitary Grunt as he continued to observe his three comrades from the cave entrance.

One of the Grunts pressed a button on the cylindrical device, and the metal casing on the outside began to separate and open up, revealing the inside of the device to be completely hollow except for an inner tube on the inside.

The Grunt pressed another button on the device, which opened up vents on the inside tube, and the solitary Grunt could almost see the light energy being taken from the cave and sucked into the device, and it was almost as if the room itself became darker.

A few minutes later, the Grunt pressed the same button again on the device, causing the inner tube vents to slam shut, and the metal casing on the outside to slide back into place, completing the collection process.

The three Grunts walked back to the observing Grunt with the device in their hands, and they left the cave to report back to Maxie, who seemed to be in the middle of a phone call.

Maxie was calling somebody on his PokeNav, and he looked extremely angry. "What do you mean, you took the converter! There was only one left! Now I have to take it back to HQ to get it converted! You slimy little-"

"Uh, boss? We, uh, got it for you.", exclaimed one of the Grunts as he handed the capsule over to Maxie, who grabbed it with interest.

"Registeel wasn't there, but we got enough Steel-type light so that we could fill up the capsule after what happened with Jirachi.", explained another Grunt.

Maxie angrily shut off his PokeNav and turned his attention to the four Grunts standing in front of him. "Very well then. I'll get another set of Grunts to transport the device back to headquarters, since that scumbag Archie took the only one reserved for this mission."

One of the Grunts handed the capsule device over to Maxie, who called another group of Grunts to set out their Pokemon and transport it back to Rainbow Rocket Headquarters as they flew off on their Fearows.

Their little mission for the day was complete, but they could only wonder what their fellow comrades in Archie's squadron were doing, and how they were preparing for their biggest mission yet, which was supposed to be a cooperative mission between the two squadrons and would happen any day now, so their time in Hoenn might be over soon.

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - LaRousse City.**_

Drew walked up the small flight of stairs once more, this time filled with determination and bravery instead of the fear and worry he felt only a few minutes earlier. With the help of his friends, Drew continued to climb each step with ease, with his friends supporting him along the way, until he reached the top quietly.

Once his feet were safely on the top floor, he noticed his father still on the computer with his headphones on, almost as if nothing had changed at all for his old man.

Drew slowly walked over to his dad, who couldn't hear him at all over the video he was watching. He stood next to the desk in silence as he looked at what his once-great father had become.

He wanted to just speak up to his dad, but his nerves acted up again, paralyzing him in fear once more. He was shaking in fear, but luckily his dad didn't notice at all.

He took a deep breath, his hands leaning on the desk for support, his brain begging him to just say a word but his body refusing to obey out of fear, until he moved his arm and poked his dad's shoulder softly, trying to get his attention.

"Here goes nothing… ", mumbled Drew as his dad perked up, put down his headphones and turned around in his chair to see his son standing in front of him, a stern expression on his face.

"Oh… hi, Andrew.", said Mr. Hayden silently after realizing his son was standing right behind him.

"Hey, dad. How've you been?", asked Drew, trying to at least make some small talk.

"I'm all right… I'm just living my life… ", Mr. Hayden responded quietly, but Drew knew he was not all right at all just from the sound of his voice.

"So I guess you already know that I'm alive now… but please don't tell anybody else.", exclaimed Drew, but received no words in return.

"Listen, dad… I'm sorry I ran away. I didn't think you would ever appreciate me and support my dreams, so the only thing I thought would fix that was if I left and never came back. I realize now that it wasn't the right thing to do, and I'm looking to make amends here.", explained Drew.

Mr. Hayden's eyes widened in surprise. He never expected Drew to say those words in his lifetime, but there was always a first time for everything. Maybe, just maybe, he would give his son a chance after all, if he was being this honest.

"I'm glad that you're apologizing, son, but you could have come back earlier. I've been here for almost five years waiting for you, but you decided to compete in those Contests of yours. Can you imagine how distraught I felt when you left and decided to never return?", asked Mr. Hayden.

"I couldn't, dad. I was too arrogant in my decision to run away up until recently, when my friends helped me figure out that I had made a mistake not contacting you for so long. At least I'm doing it now and not later.", finished Drew.

"I still don't understand why you even decided to leave in the first place. I gave you an education, a business to inherit, a house in one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world. What more could you want?", exclaimed Mr. Hayden.

"What you don't understand is that I don't want any of that. I want to pursue my dreams of being Top Coordinator and be with my friends on my journey. I don't want to stay here and work if I have the opportunity to do what I love out in the world.", Drew explained.

"Andrew, all I want is the best for you… I just can't see why you would leave me like that… ", said Mr. Hayden, leaving Drew ticked off.

"Did you not hear what I said?", shouted Drew, while Mr. Hayden remained silent.

"You see all those people down there? They're my friends. I've been through hell and back with them for the past month, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. They all mean much more to me than some desk job at the Battle Tower that's been reserved for me.", explained Drew loudly.

"I wish I could sympathize with you, Andrew, if you didn't go off performing your hobbies all over the world! You need to settle down and remain here because your Contest hobbies won't give you a career!", cried Mr. Hayden.

* * *

From downstairs, May could hear Drew's father yell at him and scold him for doing Contests for so long without his approval, and that just made her blood boil. He was the one who pushed Drew to the point of running away, yet he was the one yelling at him to change? What was his deal?

May's anger and intensity grew with each passing second as Drew kept on getting yelled at by his father, and she wanted nothing more to pummel Mr. Hayden into the ground for what he did to Drew and what he was doing to him right then.

Her fists were clenched, and she was about to make a run upstairs to crush Mr. Hayden for treating Drew so harshly like that until she was interrupted.

"May? May! Snap out of it!", exclaimed Leaf as she shook her friend in order to get her out of her thoughts.

May blinked her eyes a few times, not knowing what was going on, until she saw Leaf holding a mirror up to her face. May stared at herself through the mirror, her eyes widening in shock at what she saw.

Her irises were shining a bright red-orange color, almost like fire dancing within them, and her normal clothes were replaced with a navy blue outfit identical to the one Misty was wearing, as if she was an Aura Guardian herself.

"What the… what the hell is going on?", cried out May as she looked from the mirror to her body, which indeed had the Aura Guardian outfit over her body, replacing her travel clothes.

"Congratulations, May. I guess you're an Aura adept as well, and you seem to specialize in Fire-type Aura.", explained Misty, and May swore she could see a red-orange glow dancing across her body.

"Okay… can we leave the explaining for later? We've got to help Drew out right now.", added May as she focused back upstairs on Drew's struggles to set things right.

* * *

"I have a career, dad. You just don't see it. I've used my money that I got by winning Contests wisely. I have lots of food, money, utilities, shelter. Hell, I even invested in some stocks that you told me about!", exclaimed Drew.

"What more do you want from me! I'm doing what I want to do, and you want to drag me out of that. Just get off my back, will you!", cried Drew, actually screaming his heart at his father.

Mr. Hayden watched as Drew's irises changed from green to purple in an instant, and they seemed to glow that purple color as his son continued to yell at him. Once he was finished, Mr. Hayden noticed that the purple color was still there, and after taking a deep breath, he continued.

"Andrew, I did all this for you. I didn't want to see you in twenty years broken and unemployed, living on the streets and begging me for money. I gave you all these opportunities… I just don't want to see you squander your Contest earnings and the rest of my inheritance for good once I'm gone, leaving you all alone.", explained Mr. Hayden.

"Even if you're gone, I'm not alone. I have my Pokemon, my friends, and I'll make sure I'll do a good job with my money in the future.", exclaimed Drew with determination.

"Even if you're mad, I just want to make things right between us, and I hope you can accept that I want to keep doing Contests for a while.", finished Drew.

"I'm not mad, Drew. I understand now that you want to live your dream, and I'm not going to stop you. All I ask is that you use your money wisely so it doesn't go to waste and you can live happily. I was just expressing my worry for you in the wrong way, and I'm sorry for pushing you away all those years ago.", exclaimed Mr. Hayden.

"Do you really mean that?", asked Drew in surprise.

Mr. Hayden nodded slowly, and Drew's smile broke out into a big grin.

"Thanks, dad. I came to make things right, and I think we've accomplished that right now.", said Drew, and his father nodded his head.

"I'm glad we did this too.", exclaimed Mr. Hayden as he wrapped his son in a short hug filled with bliss.

"Just don't tell anyone that we're still alive. We don't want the whole world on our butts because of some leaked news report. Got it?", instructed Drew.

"You got it, Drew. I won't say a word.", added Mr. Hayden.

"And as for that girl I keep seeing you with on TV, Drew… do we have young love on our hands?", asked Mr. Hayden jokingly, causing Drew to blush hysterically.

"What? May? Uh… we're just good friends, that's all. Nothing to worry about, I swear!", cried Drew in defense of himself.

"Whatever you say. Just keep doing what you do best, and I'm sure you'll win her over.", exclaimed Mr. Hayden, watching his son as he almost died of embarrassment.

"See ya around, dad. I promise I'll visit again once this is over.", exclaimed Drew as he walked towards the stairs.

Drew turned to face his father one last time, and he smiled before walking back down the stairs. Once he got off the steps, he was greeted by the nervous and anticipating faces of the others.

"I made things right with my dad. Now, we can get out of here as fast as possible.", explained Drew as he stepped in front of the others.

"I knew you could do it, Drew! You basically saved us!", exclaimed May as she pushed her way through the group and wrapped him in a gigantic hug. Drew went with it, until he stopped for a second.

"May? What are you wearing?", asked Drew in confusion, not knowing what was going on.

"Yeah, this just happened two minutes ago. Supposedly I can use Aura too, and my Aura is similar to a Fire-Type. Just watch this for a second.", exclaimed May as she closed her eyes for a few seconds, and Drew watched as a red-orange glow flickered around May's body for a moment.

"You know… I could say the same for you as well, Drew. Since when did you get that outfit?", asked May with a smirk as Drew looked down at himself, and his eyes widened in shock.

Drew was also wearing the exact same outfit that Ash and Max were wearing, also signifying that he was an Aura Guardian of some sort. He then remembered feeling a sense of power when yelling at his dad earlier. Could that have been his Aura supposedly awakening right there?

"Okay, what is this?", asked Drew. "Do I have these Aura powers too?", he cried to the others.

"From the looks of it, you seem to have an Aura similar to a Poison-Type. Try closing your eyes and concentrate for a few seconds, then open them again.", explained Ash, and Drew complied.

Once he opened his eyes, he saw a purplish glow flicker around his body for a few seconds, all before dissipating back into his body. His eyes widened at the amazing power he now had in his grasp, and thought about the events to come and how this Aura would affect that.

"Wait a minute. Why did May and I both get these Aura powers today of all days, and why at all? Are we all some special group chosen to have this stuff or it is just random?", asked Drew.

"I'm not sure. It's incredibly convenient that a lot of us are revealing hidden Aura abilities specific to each Type, but I don't really know the purpose behind it. Maybe we'll get some more answers later on, but for now I have no idea why.", explained Ash.

"You know what, let's just get out of here. We can keep talking on the road out of the city.", interrupted Brock, and the others nodded in approval.

"All right. Let's move out.", finished Ash.

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 121**_

"Finally! We can set up camp here!", exclaimed Clemont as he pressed a button on his backpack, setting up the tents in an instant.

"I think we all need a break from today, so we should just relax for the night until we go to sleep. Maybe we can set up a bonfire or something to relax, just to enjoy ourselves and have a good time.", explained Brock.

"Sounds great!", exclaimed Ash.

He walked with Brock into their tent to get some supplies for cooking dinner, while Gary, Leaf, and the others got to work setting up the bonfire. A few minutes later, Brock and Cilan were busy cooking dinner, and Gary had just put the finishing touches on the bonfire, and the group got ready to relax and enjoy themselves in front of the fire.

"Today… was kind of weird, yet important at the same time, don't you think? It was definitely stressful to be discovered, but we all seemed to bond together as a group in helping Drew out.", explained Gary.

He was sitting next to Leaf by the fire, with Ash sitting up next to her and Misty laying down in front of him, her head resting on his chest. The rest of the group were sitting in a circle around the campfire, being warmed by the heat.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. I think we're all a lot closer now after what happened today.", exclaimed Ash positively.

"Especially after May and Drew both awakened their Auras.", added Cilan. "It is strange that now five people in this little group can use such an ancient and powerful art that was thought to be dead for centuries."

"Well, I'm just going with the flow, to be honest. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I'll just work it out if things go wrong.", added Ash, and the others nodded in understanding.

"I'm just glad we got out of there.", added Misty. "I don't want to deal with any more family drama for a while now, especially with Drew's family.

"Wait a minute… where are May and Drew?", asked Dawn in confusion, interrupting the rest of the group.

Brock looked around the campsite for a moment, until he just sighed to himself. "Leave them be for now, 'll just confront them in the morning."

* * *

May followed Drew through a cluster of trees near the dark campsite until they reached a small cliff edge that looked down onto Route 122 and the water surrounding it, similar to the view from the campsite from the night before.

May gasped as she stared out at the magnificent view, with Drew right beside her as they stared out into the night. It was beautiful, almost a perfect ending to the wild day she had just experienced.

"It's been a long day, right?", asked Drew, trying to start off with small talk.

"Yeah… dealing with your dad, and then getting these new Aura abilities… I just hope tomorrow's going to be a bit easier.", exclaimed May.

Drew stood next to May, the pressure filling his veins as he fiddled with a rose in his left hand. This was the perfect spot to tell May how he felt, but he had to act now or else he would miss his chance.

He had already made a tough decision earlier that day with his father, so it wasn't impossible to have to make another one only a few hours later. It was all or nothing, and Drew was going all in.

"Listen, May… can I just tell you something?", asked Drew nervously.

May's breath got caught in her throat once she heard what Drew had said. Was this really what she was thinking of? She turned around to face him in the dark, wondering if it would all come together right here.

"May… I think I realized something today. If I just believe in myself, I can practically do anything because of my support in myself helping to push me forward. And after what happened today, I realized that I've been holding myself back from saying what I really mean.", explained Drew.

"I should have told you this a few years ago, but I was too afraid to take the risk.", added Drew as he fiddled with his hands.

"I… I like you, May. I always have, and I always will.", explained Drew. "Just… throwing that out there."

May's eyes widened in surprise. She never expected Drew to flat-out tell her that he liked her, but that was what she wanted to hear from him for almost the past three years, so she decided to just go with it.

"Drew… I… I guess I like you too. If you're willing to have a relationship or something, I would like it… ", exclaimed May nervously and quietly.

Drew's eyebrows raised in shock. He had his suspicions that May liked him back, but he never knew if they were true until right now. He smiled gleefully at the thought of being with May, embracing the possibilities ahead.

"So, what do we do now? Do you want to be a couple or what?… ", asked May.

"Forget about all that now. Let's just start with this.", muttered Drew as he leaned in and kissed May on the lips, which she initially reacted with surprise but eventually went with it, lasting as long as she could.

Drew and May eventually broke off the kiss and leaned away from each other for a moment, their faces blushing like crazy. They were both on an emotional high at the moment, and they both didn't want it to end.

After a moment of silence and more kissing, May began to speak again. "Do you think we should tell the others?", she asked.

"Nah… let them find out in the morning.", exclaimed Drew as he smiled at May, and the new couple started to kiss again, ignoring the rest of the world around them.

* * *

 _ **December 30, 2002. Hoenn Region - Southern Island**_

"All right, scamps! Have you got the converter ready yet? I've got a whole capsule filled with Dragon light waiting for ya!", yelled Archie as he came out of the cluster of trees.

He had just returned from deep inside the island's forest, where he encountered a pair of Latios and Latias, which he captured with two Dark Balls and filled up his light capsule with Dragon-type light.

"The converter will be ready in just a minute, sir!", explained a Grunt standing across from the RR Admin.

The Grunt was fiddling with a cube-shaped machine with small tubes entering and exiting the seemingly hollow cube section of the machine.

Archie handed the capsule over to the operating Grunt, who fitted it in a holder that had wires attaching from the machine into the hollow cube.

The Grunt played with a few more wires and flipped a few more switches, until he stopped and stood up, relief present on his face.

"Archie, sir! The converter is ready!", he exclaimed as Archie walked over to observe the process.

Meanwhile, two other Grunts that were standing right next to the commotion watched as Archie flipped a big switch on the machine, and it started to power up.

"Do you know what that machine actually does?", asked Grunt number 7653 to his comrade, Grunt 0845, who was looking on in awe.

"Yeah. I did some research on what we're doing here, and I got back some weird but cool results. Do you want to hear them?", exclaimed Grunt 0845.

Grunt 7653 nodded his head. "Yeah. How does it even work?", he asked.

"I looked some of the parts up, and I found that this machine is supposed to convert light energy into a solid form.", explained Grunt 0845.

"What we've been doing is collecting light energy from places connected to specific Legendary Pokémon, where their light is the strongest.", he continued.

"But why would Giovanni want light energy as a solid? What would he need it for anyway?", asked Grunt 7653.

"The light energy found here is extremely powerful, and Giovanni wants a way to contain the energy without it exploding on us if it's in the capsule for a long time.", continued Grunt 0845.

"And combined with the fact that each light source corresponds to a specific Pokémon type, it seems that Giovanni wants to have the light energy of every type, for whatever reason he has in mind.", he exclaimed.

"But how will the light be contained in solid form if it's that powerful? Wouldn't it be just as frail as a capsule if it's used long-term?", asked Grunt 7653.

"That's where my research comes in. I learned that the type of solid we're using is a special rock from Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh, and the containment form is designed after a myth about Arceus having eighteen forms of Pokémon type energy. Giovanni is just trying to recreate that process in this day and age.", finished Grunt 0845.

"Eighteen sources of type light energy in solid form… what are those things that Arceus used called? Are they some rumored legendary sources of power that Giovanni wants to recreate?", asked Grunt 7653.

"I think Giovanni does want to recreate that power under his control, and as for their names…", explained 0845.

"They're called Plates."

* * *

That's the end of this chapter! I'll be trying to update the story with more chapters each week for the next few weeks, so get excited for the story to keep progressing and for the plot to finally come together! Anyway, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	18. XVII - Primal Clash: Part 1

**I'm back, everyone! As you can see, I've been having weekly updates for the story for last week, this week, and next week so I can get three chapters out for the month. I'm planning to upload at least three chapters a month for each of the next few months so I can finish the story at a fairly early time, so you can expect consistent updates in the future!**

 **Also, thanks for all the new people who followed the story since the last chapter was posted. I really appreciate it!**

 **Now, on to this chapter!**

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 121**_

"Get up, you guys! We've got a long day ahead of us!", exclaimed Brock as he poked his head into one of the tents, noticing Dawn, Barry, and Kenny's sleeping bags with them still fast asleep.

"Come on! Wake up already! We're already late!", shouted Ash as he ran next to Brock, startling the already groggy tentmates.

"Okay! Okay! We're up!", exclaimed Dawn as she sat up in her sleeping bag, but the worst was yet to come.

"Ash! Brock! I'm gonna fine you as soon as I get out of this sleeping bag!", cried Barry as he jumped up in his sleeping bag, ready to pummel whoever was in front of his tent.

"All right! We're going!", exclaimed Ash as he slowly backed away from the tent, being followed by Brock as the two of them ran back to the breakfast site by the now-burnt campfire.

A few minutes later, the others saw Dawn, Barry, and Kenny walk out of their tent, looking exhausted as they sat down on the ground next to the table, looking as if they had woken up in the middle of the night and hadn't fallen back asleep at all.

"Did they wake you up too?", asked Zoey, who had large black bags under her eyes and also looked extremely tired. Her textmates, Serena and Clemont, also looked exhausted and were resting on the table benches.

"Yeah… Ash has always been a morning person. Guess I forgot about it once I started traveling alone after we split ways in Sinnoh.", explained Dawn sheepishly.

"Oh, I knew about this from the months we traveled together in Kalos. It just slipped my mind once we were with everyone else and got on the road.", mumbled Serena, who was leaning on the table, her head resting down on her arms.

"Well, Ash is always Ash. I don't think anything would ever change his personality, not even a world-threatening problem.", exclaimed Brock as he walked over to the conversation.

"That's definitely true. Ash is just one of those people that's like the heart of soul of this whole group. Without him, we wouldn't even know each other at all.", added Clemont, who had picked his head up from the table.

"Yeah… I guess you could say that. Without Ash, I wouldn't even know who you guys were since we all met because of him.", explained Brock.

"Uh, guys!", interrupted Iris as she ran into the circle where the little group was talking amongst themselves. "Misty's acting really strange. We should go check it out."

This caused the group to get up as fast as they could, trying to get themselves together and go over to where Misty was to find out what exactly was going on with her. They soon ran over to the rock that Misty was sitting on, where she was shaking weirdly, her eyes glowing bright blue.

"Misty? Misty! What's going on here!", cried out Ash as he ran to his girlfriend and started shaking her, trying to snap her out of her trance.

Eventually, Misty's eyes stopped glowing, and her consciousness seemed to return to her body. She stopped shaking as well, returning to normal once she saw Ash holding her in his arms.

"Mist? What was going on there? Did you sense something going on nearby?", asked Ash in a caring yet worried tone, fearful that something bad was going to happen soon.

"I… I don't know. One minute I was just sitting down on this rock, looking out at the sunrise, until I started feeling an incredible source of power nearby. It almost pulled me in, and it took a lot of my Aura to get out of its trance.", explained Misty.

"What… what was that power like? How did you get tranced by it?", asked Cilan in curiosity.

"Well… it felt like some sort of extremely ancient, primal energy. It felt so craving, and it made me feel like I could have this power. The primal energy seemed to call to me, almost as if it was some primordial form of water energy, almost like a raging ocean.", continued Misty.

Ash, Brock, and Max all stared at each other, their eyes widened in shock. If what Misty described was what they were thinking of, then they were all in deep trouble. On a day where they expected to have fun and enjoy New Year's Eve, the group could be stuck in one of the most terrible situations in the past month.

"Wait… did you say water energy?", exclaimed May as she staggered over to the group, her body glowing red-orange to show her Fire-type Aura. "I felt a similar type of primal energy, but it felt like the hot lava of a volcano. It felt so ancient, I could barely stand up to its presence."

"So you felt it too?", asked Misty with suspicion. "Both Water and Fire Auras… that's really strange… "

"Wait. Where did you feel that energy coming from?", asked Ash worriedly to both Misty and May, almost looking like the fate of the world depended on their answer.

"I… I think it came from over there, by the other side of the river.", exclaimed Misty as she pointed towards the mountain on the other side, where it seemed to jut out from the water.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure I also felt that presence coming from the mountain back there.", explained May. "What's so bad about it being there?"

"Well, that mountain back there is Mt. Pyre, which is like a grave site for Pokemon.", explained Brock, and the others nodded in understanding.

"Ash, Max, and I talked about this a few nights ago, but back in ancient times the primordial Red and Blue Orbs used to be kept there for safekeeping. These orbs were forces of nature that could awaken Groudon and Kyogre and control their power as well.", finished Brock.

"After May, Max, Brock, and I helped defeat Team Magma and Team Aqua along with Lance, the Red and Blue Orbs that Archie and Maxie were using had burst apart into separate pieces, seemingly ensuring that Groudon and Kyogre couldn't be controlled and awakened again.", explained Ash.

"But if you both felt each Orb's presence, then they must have reformed and they could be taken by Rainbow Rocket to control Groudon and Kyogre again. If that's possible, then Maxie could already be at Mt. Pyre and already grabbed both for Giovanni, since we know that he's already in the region.", he finished.

"Wait a minute. I get that this could be world-threatening and all, but when did you make the time to talk about that yourselves? Did you do it while we were on the road for the past few days before yesterday?", asked Cilan.

"Yeah. The three of us just wanted to make a plan on what to do since we had already traveled the region before and already stopped Maxie from using Groudon for his own needs once before, and May was still busy making out with Drew when we were planning our strategy.", exclaimed Max.

As soon as Max finished talking, May started to blush hysterically as she stared from her brother to Drew, and then back to the smirking faces of her friends standing right next to her.

"Okay, what do you want me to say? Drew and I are a couple now.", exclaimed May impatiently, her cheeks still blushing bright red. "Is that what you wanted?"

"Not really, but it sure was good enough!", snarked Gary until he came face to face with Leaf's menacing glare, which caused him to shut up.

"You know you didn't need to say that. I could have just covered for the two of us.", exclaimed Drew impatiently. "But I guess you always have to spill the beans."

"Don't be so mad, Drew. May was just preventing the inevitable.", chirped Dawn playfully, causing May to fall over in embarrassment.

"We can't get carried away with fooling around! We still have to head over to Mt. Pyre as fast as we can!", interrupted Brock, frantically pointing across the river.

"All right. Let's pack up and move!", exclaimed Cilan as he gathered up his cooking supplies and stuffed them into his backpack.

Brock did the same with his table and his supplies, while Clemont and the others cleaned out all the tents and sent them back into his Clemontic Gear backpack as he got ready to leave. Once everything was packed up and in everyone's backpacks, the group walked over to the edge of their campsite that looked directly down on the river, towards Mt. Pyre and eventually Route 123.

"How about we use our Flying-type Pokemon to get there faster. That could help a lot!", exclaimed Dawn as gripped a Pokeball in her hand. "Come on out, Togekiss!"

"That sounds great. Let's go, Staraptor!", exclaimed Ash as he sent out his trusty Flying-type and got on its back, with Misty sitting behind him.

The rest of the gang soon called out all their Flying Pokemon, such as Drew's Flygon and Trip's Tranquil as they flew from their now-empty campsite towards Mt. Pyre and supposedly the Red and Blue Orbs.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Mt. Pyre**_

At the peak of Mt. Pyre, there stood a little pedestal made out of stone that had been there for centuries. An elder was tasked with protecting the pedestal shrine and the items that were supposed to stand on the pedestal from evildoers who sought primal energy under their command. The famous Red and Blue Orbs used to lay on each side of the pedestal, being guarded by the elder until the late months of 1999. Two mercenaries from Teams Magma and Aqua stole the Blue and Red Orbs on two separate occasions to fulfill their evil deeds.

The elder had been worried deeply for a few months, until she had gotten word from her siblings down by the ocean that Kyogre and Groudon had been stopped by some ragtag group of kids with the help of some Pokemon government force. She had just woken up from her little hut, ready to start the day and make a fire out by the edge of the peak, until she felt an evil presence from behind her. She turned around as fast as she could, trying to detect whoever was behind her, until she saw a large crowd of people in black uniforms marching up towards the peak.

"I should have known this day would come… but why? Would they want the Orbs again?", she asked herself. "But they were destroyed… what the?!"

She stared back at the ancient pedestal, where multiple fragments of light seemed to be shining in the spots where the legendary Orbs once stood for thousands of years. After a few seconds, the fragments of light seemed to form prisms from the red and blue energy that had solidified, instead of the plain spheres they had once been. To go along with the Red Orb's new raindrop prism shape and the Blue Orb's new spherical prism shape, each Orb seemed to have a distinct symbol on its front as well. The Red Orb had a symbol that looked like the ancient letter Omega, while the Blue Orb had a symbol that was similar to the ancient letter Alpha, according to the elder.

She waited for a moment as the group of people slowly marched up to her and the pedestal, nervous that they would overpower her. Part of her wanted to flee and go back to her granddaughter, who was serving in the Hoenn Elite Four, but she knew she had to stand her guard against these people, even though she was old and might not be strong enough. She walked up to the people in black uniforms, and her eyes widened when she saw who was next to their leader. She no longer had red hair and dyed it to black with blue streaks, but she would recognize that face anywhere.

"I know you. You were the one who took the Red Orb three years ago. If you're trying to steal them again, then you won't get it without a fight.", exclaimed the elder menacingly.

"Huh? Who's this, Shelly?", asked the bearded man standing next to her, who seemed to be the leader of this group in front of her.

"She's supposed to 'guard' the Orbs from people like us. She didn't put up much of a fight three years ago back when we were with Team Aqua, so I doubt she would even be a challenge now.", exclaimed Shelly arrogantly.

"All right then. Now let's collect our prize and wait for the other guests to show up.", snarked Archie as he walked up towards the pedestal, until he was stopped short by the elder.

"Not so fast, you scum! Go, Banette!", exclaimed the elder as she sent out her most trusted Pokemon right in front of the large group.

"Hmph. So you think that thing can beat me? Crush them, Mightyena!", exclaimed Archie as he sent out his Bite Pokemon to combat the Marionette Pokemon in front of him.

"Banette, full power! Mega Evolve!", cried out the elder as she pulled out her Key Stone, which reacted to the Mega Stone on a necklace that was attached to Banette. Banette's form changed until its Mega form came out of the light, ready to take down any Pokemon this guy had on his side.

"Mightyena, Crunch attack! Now!", commanded Archie as the Bite Pokemon slammed its jaws into Mega Banette multiple times, dealing massive damage despite the stat boost given when in its Mega Evolved stage.

Mega Banette slammed into the ground from Mightyena, and the elder watched as her Pokemon changed back into its normal form, having fainted from the Mightyena's Crunch attack.

"Fainted in one shot… how am I not strong enough?", mumbled the elder as she grit her teeth frustratingly.

If her Mega-Evolved Banette couldn't stand up to a normal Mightyena, then how could she beat almost a hundred people behind them?

"I knew you'd see it that way. Now get out of our sight!", shouted the leader as the elder slowly walked back to her hut, knowing full well that she had been defeated again.

Someone new needed to take the mantle of protecting the Orbs so that they never would be stolen by these people again. She had failed twice to protect them from being used to control Groudon and/or Kyogre, and now she could only hope that somebody else could stop them from being revived and wreaking havoc, destroying the whole region. The elder collapsed on the side of her hut, leaning on its front wall for support. She had depleted most of her spiritual energy when she Mega-Evolved her Banette, and she felt too weak to continue with her limited amount of spiritual energy.

"Granddaughter… Phoebe… I'm too weak... ", exclaimed the elder as her eyes closed softly and she passed on.

* * *

"All right! We made it to Mt. Pyre!", exclaimed Ash as he jumped off Staraptor's back, and returned it to its Pokeball once Misty got off the Predator Pokemon.

"We have to move quickly, since we already might be out of time. Let's go!", cried Brock as he jumped off his Forretress and returned it, and he started to run along with the others towards the edge of the summit.

Once the group walked near the far edge of the summit, they saw a group of a hundred or so Rainbow Rocket members standing near the cliff edge, surrounding some sort of structure near the very end of the peak. The gang creeped through the trees around the center path, making sure to hide from any suspecting Rainbow Rocket Grunt that was scouting the area around them. Once they were able to reach a point in the trees to see what was going on near the edge of the summit, they gasped at what they saw, especially Ash.

His eyes widened in shock once he noticed Archie, the former Aqua Leader, standing in front of the group, his trusty Admin Shelly by his side. Ash watched as Archie walked up to a stone podium right at the edge of the cliff, and grabbed what looked like the Blue Orb. Ash was even more shocked by this. The Blue and Red Orbs were destroyed three years ago once Groudon and Kyogre had calmed down and became free from Maxie and Archie's control. Now he knew that both Maxie and Archie were serving in RR as Admins, and they wanted the Orbs to potentially control Groudon and Kyogre again.

But why would Archie get the Blue Orb then? If he remembered correctly, Archie used the Red Orb to control Kyogre three years ago, with Maxie using the Blue Orb, but now Archie grabbed the Blue Orb, leaving the Red Orb on the pedestal, presumably for Maxie to grab for himself.

"We got it, scamps! Now, let's head over to the Seafloor Cavern! We have business to deal with there.", exclaimed Archie as he tried to walk, until something alerted him, surprising him.

He picked up his PokeNav and answered the phone, nodding his head to whatever the person on the other end must have been saying. He eventually finished the call and put his PokeNav away, leaving the group full with suspense and wondering who he was talking to.

"All right, scamps! Somebody else is picking up the Red Orb, and once he's gone, we can swim on over to the Seafloor Cavern and do what I've wanted to do for three years. Just be patient, fellas! World domination is in our reach!", exclaimed Archie.

The group of Grunts cheered once their boss finished talking, leaving Ash and his friends speechless. Was he truly planning on awakening Kyogre, and letting Maxie get Groudon because they were working together? Suddenly, a portal seemed to open right behind the pedestal, and out jumped Maxie and an Alakazam, which stood next to the him as he walked up and held the reformed Red Orb in his hand.

"It looks to be reformed after it was destroyed… interesting. Hopefully it will lead us to more primal and powerful energy to collect, with a primal Groudon as an added bonus.", murmured Maxie as he put the Red Orb in his pocket.

"Now, Alakazam. Back to base!", exclaimed Maxie as he and the Alakazam next to him Teleported away back to where they came, which could be wherever in Hoenn.

With Maxie taking the Red Orb, it was now free for Archie to take the Blue Orb. He gleefully walked up to the podium and snatched the Orb from the pedestal, while his Grunts looked on in awe at their leading Admin.

"All right, scamps. Now, to Route 128 and the Seafloor Cavern!", shouted Archie as he pressed a button on his wristband, and the group heard some rumbling in the ocean underneath them.

The group watched as Archie and his team started to walk towards the path leading down from the summit, and they slowly snuck out of the trees to watch Archie's team of Grunts walk down the peak, and then slowly climb down a ladder into a massive submarine that was just peeking out of the water.

"How big is that thing? That could carry at least twice the people than what they have in their group!", exclaimed Leaf in surprise.

"True… but we need to follow them!", yelled Brock. "We need to get to Route 128 first before they even get there and awaken Kyogre!"

"Max? Do you think you can Teleport us to Route 128 so we can go to this Seafloor Cavern place?", asked Gary hopefully.

"I can try, but I might not be able to take all of us directly there. Hopefully, I'll be able to Teleport us close to that specific location, so we can get there easier.", exclaimed Max.

"We at least have to give it a shot.", added Iris. "Let's do this!"

"All right. Here we go!", said Max as he closed his eyes and thrust his hands in front of him.

He started awakening the psychic Aura power within him, and he watched as his Aura Sight showed the Auras of his friends around him. He concentrated on each and every one of the eighteen Auras in front of him along with his own as he created and expanded a bubble of psychic energy around himself and the others' own Auras. Once Max was sure his bubble of psychic energy was completely around everyone, waiting to be used, he then concentrated on the place he wanted to teleport to. He focused on the calm waters of Route 128 and the massive caves underneath the sea.

With the location firmly implanted in his mind, Max held the psychic bubble firmly in his grasp, and he imagined flinging the bubble to the location, his eyes closed due to the massive concentration required to perform the task. Max felt the sensation of being teleported to another place overwhelm him, and after a few seconds his concentration and focus decreased, revealing that they had teleported to a small patch of land, surrounded by the waters of East Hoenn's oceans. He looked to his right, and there was a sign right next to him that was for Route 128, meaning that they were in the right place and had all gotten there safely.

"All right, guys! We did it!", exclaimed Max as he jumped into the air enthusiastically.

"Great! Now we just have to find wherever Archie and his Grunts went before they try anything serious with the Blue Orb.", explained Brock.

"Okay. Let's do this!", exclaimed Ash.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Ever Grande City**_

Phoebe's eyes were closed as she focused on the spiritual energy that surrounded her. For generations upon generations, her ancestors were the only ones that could control this ghostlike energy, and it was said that they were able to communicate with their own dead ancestors as well. She had been raised to harness and control the energy flowing within her by her parents and her grandmother, who was the elder of the small town they lived in off of Route 123.

Her grandmother was often on Mt. Pyre because she was assigned to protect the legendary Red and Blue Orbs from evildoers, but Phoebe and her family used to visit her to spend time together and for her to learn more about the ancient energy. Her grandma also used to lecture her about how this energy was supposed to flow through everyone, and her family was granted the ability to use this ghostlike form of said energy since their ancestors had started their traditions.

Suddenly, Phoebe sensed a disturbance in her usually normal routine. She was used to talking to the spirits of her dead ancestors, as she had been doing that for years. Now, however, she sensed a change in the spiritual normality of her routine, almost as if somebody new had joined in.

" _Granddaughter… Phoebe… I'm too weak… "_ , exclaimed a voice in Phoebe's mind, startling her to her very core.

That was her grandmother's voice speaking to her, and if her grandmother was now in the spiritual communication routine Phoebe was commencing, then that could only mean one thing.

" _Grandmother! No… please don't tell me… what happened?"_ , asked Phoebe in her mind, completely devastated at the moment.

" _Phoebe… I couldn't stop them again. They have the Orbs, and you have to avenge me. Stop them before it's too late!"_ , cried Phoebe's now-deceased grandmother.

" _I will, grandmother."_ , exclaimed Phoebe determinedly as she opened her eyes with a start and jumped out of the chair in her Elite Four office.

She ran out of her office and through the halls of the Ever Grande City Pokemon League headquarters, which also served as the base of operations for the Hoenn G-Men as well. She continued to run through the building until she reached the room at the end of the long hall, which was Steven's personal room and office to command his forces of G-Men agents and supervise the Hoenn League when it wasn't postponed.

"Steven! I need to talk to you! It's an emergency!", cried Phoebe as she knocked on the front door to Steven's room, desperate for him to respond.

A few seconds later, Phoebe sighed in relief as she watched Steven open the door from the inside, allowing her to come in without a word as he closed the door behind her. Steven obviously looked worried, as he was nervous as to what Phoebe was about to say to him.

"Steven… my grandmother just contacted me as a spirit, which means that she died earlier today, and she had bad news.", explained Phoebe extremely fast.

Steven's eyes widened in surprise, and then his facial expression changed to that of sympathy. "Oh… I'm sorry for your loss, but I don't think is the right time to talk about that if you were so desperate to call me over-"

"I still have more to say. My grandmother just told me that somebody had stolen the Red and Blue Orbs from Mt. Pyre again, and she was too weak to stop them. Do you know what that means?", she asked.

The realization slowly came to Steven's face as his eyes widened in shock. "No… does that really mean they're going to… not again… ", he murmured under his breath.

"That's right. Maxie and Archie have stolen the Red and Blue Orbs, and they're trying to awaken Groudon and Kyogre for Rainbow Rocket's purposes. We need to stop them, and fast!", cried Phoebe.

Steven immediately grabbed his PokeNav Plus out of his pocket and dialed up a number, placing the device towards his ear. Phoebe watched as Steven waited impatiently for the person on the other end to pick up the phone, nervous about what was yet to come.

"Maximize all defenses, and scour the region on land and sea for both Maxie and Archie. I need them apprehended, and if you can't find them quickly enough, then the Elite Four, Wallace, and I will all step in with our own G-Men teams. Got it?", asked Steven on the phone.

A few seconds later, Steven hung up the phone and shut off his PokeNav Plus, now facing Phoebe again. This was going to be one of their toughest battles yet, but they both knew they had to succeed, or else the consequences for themselves and the region would be fatal.

"The best thing we can do is hope that Maxie and Archie are captured before they go after Groudon or Kyogre. If we're too late for that, then we have to try as hard as we can to take them down before the whole region is destroyed.", explained Steven as he sat down on his chair.

Phoebe nodded her head in understanding.

"Then let's just do it."

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Jagged Pass**_

"Maxie, sir! Preparations have been made, and we're all clear to enter the inside of Mt. Chimney. Do you have your protective gear?", asked Tabitha as he walked inside Maxie's office.

"Yes. I'll put it on once we reach dangerous levels of heat and temperature while inside the mountain's core.", explained Maxie as he put on his glasses and stood up from his chair.

"Good. We'll be sending out the first wave of Grunts to inspect the area in a few minutes, just so you'd know.", exclaimed Tabitha as he left Maxie's office.

During their new mission in Hoenn, Maxie had located the old Team Magma base from three years earlier, and his team had been staying there for the past two weeks or so, preparing for their missions and their plans to serve Rainbow Rocket. In order to fulfill his end of the deal with Archie and his team, Maxie was supposed to go to Groudon's resting place underneath Mt. Chimney and collect enough light for the Fire-type, and he would get an added bonus if he used the Red Orb to control and later capture Groudon for Giovanni as well.

Maxie held up what looked like a protective space suit that was a bright red color, and he pressed a button on the shoulder area of the suit, causing it to collapse into a cube-shaped device that he put into his pocket. He then walked out of his old office and locked the door as he continued to walk down the hallway, watching his Grunts run down the halls, preparing for the biggest mission of their lives.

"Go faster! We only have a few minutes before we all meet at the gate to the mountain's core!", shouted Tabitha through the base's speaker system.

He was startling the Grunts more as they rushed faster to complete preparations before they began the mission, and Maxie walked to the end of the hall and made a right turn, walking all the way down until he came face-to-face with an industrial-style blast door that was the gateway to the inside of Mt. Chimney. He entered a code into the keypad next to the door and watched as the blast door swung open, revealing a rocky inside and bubbly magma down below. Tabitha walked next to him and braced the hot and steamy air, as a crowd of Grunts came up behind them.

"Listen up, Grunts! You all go scout the area for any trouble, and make sure it's clear for us to go through to Groudon's chamber. Got it?", asked Tabitha, and the Grunts nodded their head.

"First wave! Go!", shouted Maxie as he started a timer on his watch while a group of twenty or so Grunts raced around him, running deeper into the volcano to make sure the coast was clear.

A few minutes later, the alarm on Maxie's watch rang, and he set another one as Tabitha kept talking to his Grunts on his intercom. "Second wave, go!", shouted Maxie as he pointed ahead. More and more Grunts ran past Maxie and Tabitha in more and more waves as the group behind him started to get smaller as Tabitha answered more questions on his walkie-talkie. It had been twenty or so minutes since the first wave of Grunts had entered the core of the volcano, and now it was time for Maxie and Tabitha to enter as well.

"Maxie, sir? Are you ready to locate Groudon?", asked Tabitha as he shut off his portable intercom and faced his boss.

"Yes, Tabitha. Now let's move deeper into the volcano. We have a Legendary Pokemon to catch and light to collect, and we have to do it now.", explained Maxie.

The two walked past the stationed Grunts as a path was cleared for them to enter the deepest chamber of the volcano's magma-filled insides. After a few minutes of walking, they had made it to Groudon's chamber, where Maxie instructed Tabitha to wait outside.

"Only one person is required to do this task, so you make sure nobody else interferes while I deal with Groudon.", exclaimed Maxie as he brought out another light capsule.

Maxie walked ahead of Tabitha and into the innermost chamber of Mt. Chimney, where he saw the dormant stone form of Groudon in the center of a pool of pure magma a few yards in front of him. He then took out the cube he had in his pocket and pressed the center button, allowing the prototype Magma Suit to form around him, protecting him from the fiery elements present in the chamber. He tested out the suit's functions to make sure they all worked perfectly until he walked up to the edge of the rock right next to the magma pool, where Groudon's stone form laid in the magma. He pulled out the light capsule he had been carrying, and opened it up, collecting all the Fire-type light surrounding the dormant Groudon. Once the capsule had been filled up, Maxie put the capsule away and turned his attention to Groudon.

"I was only supposed to collect light for Groudon, but if I capture it, I can deliver it to Giovanni as well.", murmured Maxie under his breath as he pulled out the Red Orb.

"Red Orb! Awaken Groudon, now!", shouted Maxie as he held up the mystical orb into the air.

Red light began to shine from the Orb and it went towards Groudon's stone cocoon, and eventually the light broke the stone around the Legendary Pokemon, revealing the form of the Continent Pokemon. The Groudon slowly looked around its surroundings before his eyes laid on Maxie, who was the one that controlled it three years earlier. Meanwhile, Maxie gripped a Dark Ball in his hand, and after waiting for a few moments, he threw it at Groudon.

The Dark Ball hit Groudon, bounced off it, and opened it up, sucking in the Legendary Pokemon in a beam of purple light. Maxie watched as the Dark Ball shook once, twice, and even a third time with suspense. Unfortunately, after three shakes, Groudon broke out of the Dark Ball, and seemed to burrow his way underground through the magma rivers underneath the earth's crust, leaving Maxie behind.

The RR Admin cursed to himself. How could he let Groudon away like that? At least he got enough light from the area to fill up the capsule, so Giovanni wouldn't be that mad at him once the mission was over. He hoped that Archie would have captured Kyogre and collected enough Water-type light to fill up his own capsule, so their mission wouldn't be a complete letdown. Either way, his team had to leave the base to meet up with Archie's squad near Route 128, so he had to get going anyway.

"Tabitha! We have to go now. Make sure the Grunts are preparing!", shouted Maxie.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 128**_

"Wait a moment! How are we supposed to get to the Seafloor Cavern if it's underwater? We can't breath down there!", cried Clemont as he stared into the water.

"Yeah… that may be a problem. How can we even get there?", asked Serena.

Ash thought about the situation for a moment, until an idea came into his head. "If you have a Water-type Pokemon, then it can help you swim down to the entrance, so we should try to use that."

"That's great, Ash!", shouted Brock as he gripped a Pokeball in his hands. "Go, Marshtomp!"

Brock sent out his trusty Marshtomp and tied them together with a rope as they dove underwater, determined to reach Archie and stop his plans. Meanwhile, the others quickly sent out their Water Pokemon and used any spare rope to tie them all together so they could all dive down faster.

"Hey, Ash!", said Misty, calling her boyfriend's attention as she waved him over. "You can use my Starmie for this one. I've got a better idea for myself."

Ash smiled as he caught Starmie's Pokeball that Misty tossed to him, and sent it out, along with catching a rebreather that she threw a few seconds later towards him.

"All right Starmie, let's do this!", shouted Ash as he sent out the Mysterious Pokemon, and grabbed onto its appendages as they dove underwater to reach the Seafloor Cavern.

Misty was the last person remaining on the shore as she stared into the deep, reflective surface of the water. She had thought about this for a while now, but her moment of truth was right here and right now. She focused on her Aura as she dove into the water, her eyes closed in determination. After swimming downward for a few seconds and continuing to hold her breath, she decided to open her eyes, which then widened in shock. Misty had always been able to see well underwater thanks to years of practice and training with her family or with her Pokemon, but this was on a whole other level. She was able to see absolutely everything the deep ocean had to offer, from the rippling currents above to the foundations of islands and cities far away from where she was.

She then noticed that she was beginning to run out of breath underwater, and she waited for the inevitable to happen, which filled her with dread. She would run out of breath, and without a rebreather, she wouldn't be able to breath and slowly suffocate underwater right in front of her boyfriend.

Except, it didn't happen at all.

Misty swallowed her deep breath and expected to feel the pressure and suffocation of not breathing underwater, except all she felt was the feeling of breathing normally. Her lungs contracted and expanded, and she didn't feel the water pressure at all. She had thought about using her Aura to try and breathe underwater, but she wasn't sure if it would work correctly. Luckily, it worked perfectly, allowing the currents to carry her at top speed towards the Seafloor Cavern.

* * *

Misty's head popped up out of the water once she was safely inside the Seafloor Cavern, and looked around at the faces of her soaking wet friends. She pulled herself up out of the water, and to her surprise, found out that she was completely dry even after swimming in the ocean.

"Okay, this has been a weird day for me. First I find out that I can breathe underwater, and now I can't even get wet! My sisters' water shows would be so much easier now!", exclaimed Misty, feeling a natural thrill and adrenaline coursing through her body.

"Wait a minute. You can breathe underwater?", asked Paul. "Is that another one of your Aura abilities?"

"I guess so. I just focused on using my Aura underwater, and I think it worked great!", added Misty enthusiastically.

"Mist! Here's Starmie's Pokeball and your rebreather. It helped out a lot!", exclaimed Ash as he handed the two items back over to Misty, who smiled in return.

"All right. We have an Archie to defeat. Let's go!", shouted Drew as he started to walk with the rest of the group deeper into the Seafloor Cavern, ready to stop Rainbow Rocket here at all costs.

"We should split up here. There could be tons of Rainbow Rocket Grunts on patrol, ready to take us out on a moment's notice if we get caught.", exclaimed Kenny.

"No, I say we go for a full-on assault. If we have the firepower and Aura necessary to take Archie and his Grunts down here, then I say we bring it on.", explained Gary.

"Yeah… I agree with Gary here. There probably isn't enough space to sneak around the RR Grunts, but we do have enough strength from five Aura adepts and strong Pokemon from all of us to be able to break through.", added Ash.

"All right then. Here goes nothing!", shouted Brock as he and the others ran into the room in front of them, ready for anything that stood in their way.

* * *

"What the-! Intruder alert! Intruders storming through Sector 1!", shouted a panicked Grunt into the intercom that he shared with Archie, who was much deeper inside the Seafloor Cavern.

"Venusaur, go!", shouted Leaf as she ran up to the Grunt with the intercom, her Venusaur standing right next to her.

"Arbok! Get her!", cried the Grunt as he quickly flung out a Pokeball, ready to attack this girl and defeat her as fast as he can.

"Use Razor Leaf!", commanded Leaf as she pointed towards the terrified RR Grunt and his Arbok, who both looked terrified.

Venusaur immediately fired rapid Razor Leaf attacks toward the Grunt's Arbok, who slammed backwards into the Grunt as they both hit the rocky wall and slid down to the floor, unconscious.

As Gary was watching Leaf battle a Rainbow Rocket Grunt, he noticed another Grunt sneak up behind her, his Golbat charging up an Air Slash to get rid of Leaf, who was focused on attacking one of the other Grunts in the room.

"Not on my watch!", shouted Gary, causing the Grunt to turn around and face him instead, a determined look in his eyes.

"Blastoise, use Hydro Pump now!", shouted Gary, as Blastoise fired two fast streams of water from its shoulder cannons towards the Grunt.

The attack knocked the Grunt's Golbat out of the sky and down onto the ground, having fainted from the extremely strong attack sent by Gary's Blastoise.

"Thanks, Gary!", shouted Leaf as she turned around, smiling at her old friend.

"Come on! Let's keep going!", shouted Dawn as she looked back at Gary and Leaf while running through the passage leading to the next room, them following suit behind him.

* * *

Ash and Misty raced into the second room, where even more Rainbow Rocket Grunts were standing, Pokemon ready to be sent out to destroy the group that was invading their base.

"The intruders have invaded Sector 2! I repeat, the intruders are in Sector 2!", shouted the Grunt, but he was silenced as he was hit by an Aura Sphere, courtesy of Ash.

"Back away, lady. Or else you'll feel my wrath.", exclaimed another Grunt as he gripped a Pokeball in his hand, ready to throw it.. "Go, Weezing!"

"Well, prepare to get soaked!", snarked Misty, who was summoning up some Water Pulses in each of her hands, and the Grunt in front of her looked terrified.

Misty fired her Water Pulses right towards the Grunt, which sent him backwards and knocked him unconscious as well. She then turned her attention to the Grunt behind her, who tried to punch her in the face, but she was sent back by an Aura-infused kick to the chest.

Ash noticed his girlfriend kicking some Grunts right into the wall, and he smiled to himself. It wasn't every day that you were fighting an evil syndicate with your girlfriend, and to knock them into the ground as well with your abilities. He then turned his attention to the last Grunt in the room, since Misty and the others had taken care of everyone else with their Pokemon and Aura abilities. The last Grunt sent out a Houndoom to face Ash, a menacing grin on his face.

"You're dead, kid. Houndoom! Use Flamethrower!", shouted the Grunt as the Dark Pokemon fired a stream of flames in Ash's face.

Ash dodged the attack quickly and responded with firing another Aura Sphere in the Grunt's face, knocking him back a few feet, before his walkie-talkie started to beep. He picked up the walkie-talkie and mumbled a few words into it before facing back to Ash. The Grunt was about to make a snarky move back at Ash, but he was immediately hit by an Aura Sphere that also knocked him unconscious, while Ash and Misty ran deeper into the cave.

* * *

As May ran into the next room, she noticed that there were a much less amount of Grunts standing in her way towards the next room, and she was determined to take them all out as fast as she could. She turned around once she noticed Drew as he entered the third chamber of the cavern and stopped right next to her.

"You ready for this?", asked May as her eyes narrowed towards a RR Grunt from across the room, her Aura igniting around her.

"Oh, you wanna go? Take her out, Sharpedo!", shouted the Rainbow Rocket Grunt as he pointed towards May. "Use Water Gun!"

May noticed the stream of water fire from the Sharpedo's mouth and easily dodged it. Once she landed back on her feet, she focused and held out her hands. Once she concentrated, it was easy to let loose a red-hot Flamethrower attack right on the Grunt, burning him to a crisp. She tried to make a move to the end of the room until she saw Drew going up against another Grunt, and he was having a bit of trouble standing up to the other Grunts he was facing.

She ran over to Drew, who was busy dodging a Dark Pulse attack sent by one of the Grunts' Mightyena. She watched as another Grunt sent out a Victreebel to counter the two of them, ready to attack.

"What the-May! What do I do now!", shouted Drew as he turned to face May, who was dodging attacks left and right.

"Just focus! I believe in you!", exclaimed May as she jumped out of the way from Victreebel's Razor Leaf attack.

Drew closed his eyes, concentrating for a moment, and then it all seemed to come naturally to him. He felt a surge of power in his veins, and he opened his eyes again to see a ball of poisonous energy in his hands.

"Well, I guess this checks out! Here goes nothing!", shouted Drew as he threw the energy ball towards the Grunts, which turned out to be a Sludge Bomb attack.

The Grunts became covered in poisonous sludge, causing them to recall their Pokemon and recoil thanks to the slime all over their bodies. They ran past May and Drew, trying to wash themselves off, while May and Drew high-fived each other and ran past them into the next room.

* * *

"Piplup! Wipe the floor with them!", shouted Dawn as she sent out her must trusty Pokemon to combat the multiple Weezings and Houndooms all the RR Grunts had with them.

"Hahaha! You expect a puny little penguin to beat all of us? Houndour, Fire Blast!", shouted a Grunt as he commanded his Pokemon to attack.

What the Grunt didn't notice was that Dawn's Piplup was busy charging a Hydro Pump attack, and he backed away once he realized the Fire Blast was dodged by the Piplup. He recoiled once he reached the back wall, and prepared for the worst.

"All right. Piplup, use Hydro Pump!", exclaimed Dawn, and Piplup launched a gigantic torrent of water towards the group of Grunts, dousing them in cold water and leaving them soaking wet.

"Dawn! We've got to move!", shouted Paul as he pointed towards the narrow path to the next room, where she noticed Barry and Trip running through with their Pokemon.

"All right! Just give me a couple of seconds to beat these guys down.", exclaimed Dawn as she noticed the next wave of Grunts approaching her and Piplup.

"Weezing! Use Sludge Wave!", exclaimed one of the Grunts as he sent out one of her Pokemon to counter Dawn's Piplup.

Piplup tried to dodge the onslaught of poisonous attacks, but it got hit by the Sludge Wave and got sent back into the wall. Dawn recalled her Piplup as she stared at the crowd of Grunts, waiting to attack her next.

"Magmortar! Use Fire Punch!", commanded Paul as the Blast Pokemon's hand was covered in fire and it charged at the Weezing, which fainted from the powerful attack.

Once all the Grunts were defeated, Paul returned his Magmortar to its Pokeball and looked at the pile of unconscious Grunts in front of him. They were extremely easy to defeat on their own, but they could be a threat when grouped together.

"All right. Let's go, Paul!", exclaimed Dawn as she ran towards the passageway towards the next chamber, motioning him to follow her.

Paul just stared at her and shrugged to himself. Dawn was a good battler, and she was nice, and she was probably the person that he could trust the most of this whole group. He still didn't know everyone in the group that well even after a few weeks of all traveling together, but he'd known Dawn since he first met Ash in Sinnoh almost two years ago. Did he like her that much? Maybe, since she was overall a nice person, but it was hard to talk since he was so much of an introvert and just chose not to deal with talking to others except for people he really wanted to talk to. Either way, he started to follow Dawn through the passageway, since if he stayed here he would probably get destroyed by more Rainbow Rocket troops, and it was probably best if the group stuck together, including him.

* * *

The group continued to traverse through the next three cave rooms, noticing the severe lack of Rainbow Rocket troops or Grunts anywhere in those rooms. They walked silently through the rocky terrain, ready for an ambush at any moment. At the end of the third room with no enemy personnel at all, the group found a larger door than what had been at the end of most of the cave rooms. They crowded around the door, planning what to do next once they walked through the door.

"We have to be silent and go as fast as we can through this room. I can sense Kyogre's energy in the next room, and it's getting stronger with each step.", explained Misty as she crouched behind the passageway.

"Sounds like a plan. We better get to Archie fast before he tries any funny business with Kyogre, and before it's too late to stop him.", added Ash.

"All right. I'm in!", shouted Barry enthusiastically.

"Okay then. Let's show Archie what we're made of!", shouted Trip as he started to run through the passageway.

The others reacted swiftly and followed suit behind him, running through the narrow passageway for a few minutes until they reached a wider cave chamber that led down to a pool of underground water, where the stone form of Kyogre rested above the waves. They could see Archie and his head officer Shelly down by the pool, with a few more basic Grunts to protect them from any intruders. The group crouched down against a rocky wall and attempted to eavesdrop on what Archie was saying as he took out the Blue Orb.

"Archie! We already failed to control Kyogre once, and we failed. What makes you think we'll be able to succeed this time?", asked Shelly nervously.

"Don't worry about me, Shelly. I've already collected enough light to fulfill this mission's requirement, and so catching Kyogre will just be a bonus prize for Giovanni that I would gladly give to him.", explained Archie.

"Now, Blue Orb, grant me my wish! Revive Kyogre!", shouted Archie, as the Blue Orb in his hand started to glow.

"He's going to summon Kyogre! We have to do something!", cried Kenny, his eyes widening in fear.

"We have an answer.", reassured Ash quickly, trying to calm down the terrified group.

"Max, do your thing.", he finished.

"You got it, Ash!", muttered Max as he closed his eyes tightly, ready to take Archie out as fast as possible.

He quickly teleported himself away from the group's hiding spot and right behind Archie, Shelly, and all of the Grunts. The group watched in suspense as Max sent a psychic shockwave that sent everyone else there besides him flying into the walls or right into the water.

"What the hell! Who did that?", cried Archie, getting out of the water and looking like he was going to pummel Max into the ground.

"We've got to help him out! Serperior, use Energy Ball!", commanded Trip as he sent out his starter Pokemon from its Pokeball.

Serperior fired a sphere of pure grass energy that struck Archie right in the backside, toppling him over onto the ground. This attracted the Grunts' attention to the group's hiding spot, which meant that they would be found out once again. The Grunts sent out their Pokemon, which were mostly Water-Types such as Sharpedo and Dark-Types like Mightyena to go after the group, and they were slowly creeping up towards their hiding spot/

"I guess we better fight back. Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!", shouted Ash as he pointed towards the crowd of Grunts.

Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and unleashed a powerful attack that decimated all of the Water-type Pokemon that Archie's Grunts had in their arsenal. They staggered back and returned their fainted Pokemon, while Ash motioned for the others to join in the fray.

"Croagunk! Use Brick Break!", yelled Brock as he sent out one of his Pokemon, which dealt massive damage to one of the Grunts' Mightyena.

Barry noticed Shelly, or whatever Max said her name was, run over to the Grunts and hold up a Pokeball of her own. He then saw a Muk come out of her Pokeball, ready to attack any one member of the group and take them down.

"Not so fast, Shelly. You forgot that Poison-types like Muk are weak to psychic attacks!", exclaimed Max, stopping her in her tracks.

His eyes glowed pink and his Aura ignited around him, all while Muk was lifted into the air by Max and thrown into the far wall of the large chamber.

"Grrr… return, Muk!", muttered Shelly as she gritted her teeth in frustration.

"You may have put me to my wit's end, but not for Archie. He's about to summon Kyogre and capture it for Giovanni!", cackled Shelly as she pointed downwards towards the pool of water.

Down below, Archie had miraculously gotten himself up again and was holding up the Blue Orb to revive Kyogre into a living state again, which could quite possibly send the whole world into a gigantic rainstorm again.

Ash cursed to himself. They had been so focused on fighting the Grunts this whole time that they'd ignored Archie until Shelly pointed it out to them. Now, he was completely free to summon Kyogre again, and they had no way of getting past Shelly and stopping him. All they could do was watch as the Blue Orb's light shined on Kyogre's stone form, causing cracks to appear in the stone shell, surprising everyone in the room that it was working so well and so quickly. Eventually, the stone shell broke apart Kyogre and fell into the water in little pieces, revealing the blue and red form of Kyogre, the legendary Sea Basin Pokemon. It looked around for a moment, until it noticed Archie in front of it, the same human who had controlled it three years earlier.

"Now, Kyogre. You'll be coming with me now. Go, Dark Ball!", shouted Archie as he threw it at Kyogre, hoping for it to be caught.

Ash's eyes widened in shock at what Archie had just thrown at Kyogre. Those Dark Balls were the exact same things the Iron-Masked Marauder used back in Johto to capture Celebi and bring it under his control. If Archie had access to Dark Balls, it meant that the technology had been mass-produced under Team Rocket, allowing them to capture every powerful Pokemon and bring them under their control, just like with the Celebi in Arborville four years earlier.

Ash turned around to face Misty and Brock, who were equally as surprised at Archie's use of Dark Balls to try and capture Kyogre.

"This is really bad… I remember those things from back in Johto… ", muttered Misty.

"If he catches Kyogre, then it'll obey his every command! We have to stop him right now, unless the whole region will be covered in water, or even the whole world! That type of Pokeball can capture any Pokemon and let its user completely control it!", exclaimed Brock as he pointed down towards Archie.

Kyogre was enveloped in a purple light as it was sucked into the Dark Ball. It shook once, twice, and even a third time in place as everybody in the room waited in suspense as to what was going to happen next. Suddenly, the Dark Ball split open and broke into two pieces, revealing Kyogre again, who was now looking extremely angry at Archie. The RR Admin backed away as the Kyogre began charging up an unknown attack as multiple spheres of water began piling up in its open mouth.

"What the-what kind of attack is that!", shouted Archie as the Kyogre launched the spheres of water out of its mouth, where they became strong streams of water that all hit Archie at the same time, sending him into the back wall.

Shelly ran over to look at Archie, while the Grunts that were still conscious fainted due to their leader having collapsed against the far wall.

Misty noticed that Kyogre was still extremely mad, and it looked like it would destroy everything and everyone here, and maybe even in the whole region if it wasn't calmed down now.

"Kyogre, listen! You need to calm down, unless you'll destroy everything in sight! I understand your pain, but you need to calm down and not be bothered like this again.", exclaimed Misty as she stood above the rocks.

Her speech attracted Kyogre's attention, and the Legendary Pokemon turned to look at her, her cerulean Aura glowing strongly around her.

Kyogre sensed the incredible power within the girl in front of it, and he almost recognized the powerful Aura that the girl seemed to have possessed. It was about to listen to her and transform back into its stone self and disappear underground, until another surprise happened.

"Shelly! No!",cried Ash as he watched the former Aqua Admin throw another Dark Ball from Archie's pocket at Kyogre, and he waited for the inevitable.

Misty jumped off the rocks as soon as Shelly threw the Dark Ball and hit it out of the way with her hand, causing it to smash into the side wall, breaking it into two pieces. Ash cheered for her as she advanced on Shelly, her Aura glowing the strongest it ever was around her. Suddenly, she noticed Shelly waking up Archie, who slowly got to his feet and held another Dark Ball in his shaking hand, ready to throw it. Shelly was supporting her leader as she helped him walk over to Kyogre again.

Misty, who had landed on the other side of the room, tried to jump across again to deflect the third Dark Ball thrown, but her last-minute dive was too late as the Dark Ball flew inches our of her reach.

"We can't stop it. There isn't enough time! Kyogre's going to break out and destroy everything again!", exclaimed Max as he clenched his fists.

Kyogre was sucked into the Dark Ball for a second time now, and it shook three full times while Ash ran to Misty and helped her up, along with walking her over to the side where the others were. They watched as the Dark Ball shook three full times, but it broke apart again, leaving everyone in the room with a very angry Kyogre, more angry than the last time it was trapped in a Dark Ball.

"Kyogre… no! Don't leave me again!", shouted Archie as the Sea Basin Pokemon disappeared underwater and swam off underground, leaving the Seafloor Cavern behind.

"So… it's gone. What do we do now?", asked Gary in desperation.

"You… you kids have foiled my plans for the second time in three years! You're all going to die!", shouted Archie as he sent out his Sharpedo, which had a bandanna with a stone in the middle around his neck.

He then brought out a gold anchor of sorts, with an rainbow-colored stone embedded in the middle of the three prongs. "Sharpedo, hear my call! Mega Evolve, now!"

The gang watched as light came out of Archie's Key Stone and flew over to Sharpedo's Mega Stone, causing a bright light to blind the group. Once the light dissipated, it revealed Mega Sharpedo in all its glory.

"Mega Sharpedo! Use Hydro Pump all around the room, and Shelly! Get the submarine ready! NOW!", shouted Archie as he pointed towards the back wall of the cavern.

Shelly brought out her phone and dialed some numbers just as Mega Sharpedo launched the biggest Hydro Pump Ash had ever seen in a wave pattern all around the room, causing the rocks to break apart and a wave of torrential water to come crashing into the chamber. Ash struggled to put on his rebreather in time as the group got swept up in the cascade of high-pressure water, and he watched as Archie and Shelly both got in a gigantic submarine as the back wall completely broke apart, leaving Ash and the group in the open sea.

He tried to swim up to the surface, but the pressure was so large that far deep in the ocean that he was completely winded by the time he and the others reached the top. He took off his rebreather quickly and took a deep breath of air, only before he passed out on the water.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Ever Grande City**_

"Phoebe! You have to see this! It's an emergency!", shouted Sidney, the Dark-type specialist of the Hoenn Elite Four.

Phoebe heard his yelling from behind the closed front door of her office, and she slowly walked over to the door and opened it, revealing Sidney's terrified expression.

"There's something going on down by Sootopolis. Somebody awakened Groudon and Kyogre again, and they're going at it in the middle of the ocean!", shouted Sidney as he pointed out towards the big window on the other side of the hall.

"Are you serious?", exclaimed Phoebe as she ran up to the window and looked down at the ocean routes in desperation.

Her eyes soon fell on the two gigantic forms of Groudon and Kyogre, approaching Sootopolis City from both sides, probably to reach the mounds of primal energy present under the city's volcano core.

"Oh, Arceus… that isn't good. Has somebody told Steven yet?", she asked.

"I told Sidney about it, and I already called Wallace to prepare all the G-Men troops by Sootopolis to apprehend Groudon and Kyogre.", explained Steven as he walked into the hall.

"My personal agents are making final preparations to transport us to Sootopolis City as well to help out as well. We should be leaving in a few minutes, tops.", finished Steven.

"All right.", responded Phoebe. "I just hope it isn't too late to stop them before they destroy everything… "

"Aw, don't be such a downer. I guarantee that Groudon and Kyogre will be stopped, just like three years ago. We can do it!", shouted Sidney enthusiastically.

"That's the spirit!", exclaimed Steven, who's PokeNav Plus started to ring again.

He answered the phone call, and talked with the person on the other end for a few minutes, while Glacia and Drake walked over and joined Phoebe and Sidney at the end of the hall. Steven closed his PokeNav Plus and put it away as he faced all four members of his Elite Four who were all in front of him.

"That was my leading G-Men commander. His team of agents will be escorting us to Sootopolis where Wallace is going to meet with us. Do you understand?", asked Steven.

"You got it, boss. Groudon and Kyogre won't stand a chance when up against my Mega Salamence!", exclaimed Drake.

"They're already here. Let's go!", added Glacia as she pointed in front of her into the air.

Right where Glacia was pointing, a group of people were flying over to the island on their Pokemon. A few seconds later, the group landed on the clifftops of the island, directly in front of the Elite Four.

"We're here to take you to Sootopolis. The situation is worsening there, so we should leave as soon as we can.", explained the squad commander.

"We can leave now, so let's get going.", exclaimed Steven as he held a Pokeball in his hand. "Go, Metagross!"

The rest of the Elite Four sent out their Pokémon as well, and the whole group soon flew off Ever Grande Island toward Sootopolis City, ready to fight against the Legendary Pokémon and stop them once and for all.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Sootopolis City**_

Wallace stood in front of the age-old Cave of Origin as he looked up at the sky, noticing a few blurs rush down towards the city. He squinted his eyes to try and get a better look despite the very harsh sun beating down on the area, until the blurs came closer and they revealed themselves to be Steven, his Elite Four, and a group of G-Men agents flying down on their Pokemon. The big group returned their Pokemon once they all landed, and Steven was the first to reach Wallace, his Elite Four trailing behind him. They each greeted their former Champion as they grouped up in behind the gigantic tree that had been there for millenia.

"I saw the stuff going on outside. Groudon and Kyogre are both underground, swimming towards the city for some reason. We all saw both of them peek out for a short time before diving back underground, still heading here.", explained Steven.

"They must be heading to the Cave of Origin, then. That place is basically a super-ancient source of primal energy for both Groudon and Kyogre.", exclaimed Wallace worriedly.

"Well, our G-Men forces can stall Kyogre and Groudon for time while we go inside the Cave of Origin and defeat Maxie and Archie, or else this region is done for.", added Phoebe.

"But what if our G-Men forces aren't enough? We might need to call on some form of backup to help us defeat Groudon and Kyogre.", asked Sidney worriedly.

"Hmm… there's an old legend about Rayquaza that could come in handy… ", murmured Wallace under his breath, but the others head every word.

"My old master told me that if somebody chosen by the Draconid people or the ancient Sootopolitans went up to the Sky Pillar on Route 131 and managed to summon Rayquaza, then it would stop any conflict Groudon and Kyogre were in. I can go to Sky Pillar and try to summon it, so you won't have to deal with all the trouble down here.", explained Wallace.

"All right. You better get there quick, or else we could have run out of time if you summon Rayquaza too late.", encouraged Steven as Wallace brought out a Pokeball in his hand.

Wallace then opened the Pokeball containing his trusty Pokemon, and got on its back as the two Surfed off south into the distance towards Route 131 and the Sky Pillar.

* * *

"I sure hope the thing about summoning Rayquaza is true, or else we would have to stop Groudon and Kyogre without Wallace here to help out.", exclaimed Steven worriedly.

Suddenly, Steven heard a sound come from behind him, and he whirled around to see Maxie appear with a Kadabra, meaning that he just Teleported with it to get here. The rest of his group also noticed him appear behind them, menacing glares in their eyes.

"Oh. I should have given you more accurate coordinates to Teleport to, or else we wouldn't be in this situation.", muttered Maxie to his Kadabra.

"Listen here, Maxie. After all that you've done for Giovanni in the past few weeks, give us one good reason why we won't kill you right on the spot.", gritted Steven, gripping a Pokeball tightly in his hand.

"Well, I didn't mean to cause Groudon to go on a rampage. I was only trying to complete my mission when it ran all the way here, so I'll just do you a favor and get rid of it myself… by catching it.", exclaimed Maxie as he began to run towards the Cave of Origin.

This startled everyone in the group, who had little time to react to Maxie running away, as a submarine started to resurface, and to their surprise, Archie jumped out of it right in front of the group of Champions, Elite Four members, and elite G-Men commanders.

"Ah… I did not mean for Kyogre to get away like that, but I'll just help you out, also by catching it. See ya later, scamps!", explained Archie as he ran in the same direction as Maxie.

Having to deal with that for a second time finally triggered the group to react, and they chased after Maxie and Archie towards the entrance to the Cave of Origin, where they were desperately trying to open the massive stone doors.

"I have an idea. Camerupt, use Eruption!", shouted Maxie as he released his most powerful Pokemon.

"Quick, Aggron! Use Protect!", countered Steven as he brought out his Iron Armor Pokemon to shield himself and his group from the fiery blast.

The devastating Fire-type attack caused a huge burst of flames, and when the fire died down, Aggron's Protect attack disappeared and the group discovered that the doors had been practically dissolved thanks to the incredible heat and power of the attack. Maxie and Archie stopped for a moment and stared in awe at what they had just done, until they regained their senses and began to run ahead of Steven and his group, Maxie recalling his Camerupt along the way.

"Come on! We have to catch them!", shouted Drake as he ran into the ancient cave, being followed by Steven and the others running as fast as they could to try and catch up to Maxie and Archie.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Route 131**_

Ash's head broke the surface of the ocean waters, and after realizing that he could breathe normally again, he took off the rebreather he was using and started to tread water, waiting for the others to arrive. Eventually, the exhausted faces of the others eventually broke the surface of the water, and joined Ash in treading water and waiting for everyone to arrive before they could move onward, or figure out where they were in the first place.

"What the… where are we? The last thing I remember is fighting Archie in the Seafloor Cavern and Kyogre disappearing, until it started to flood and we got pushed up into the water. Where did we even end up?", asked Dawn.

"I have no idea… but we could find out if we head over to that giant building. Maybe we'll get some clues there.", answered Paul as he pointed to a building in front of him.

The building that Paul was pointing to was a giant stone skyscraper that looked like it had been there for thousands of years, and it was beginning to wear down and lose its shine. It also only looked to be a short swim away, completely bearable for the group to get there.

"I say we try it. We have nothing to lose by not going there, except continuing to be stuck in the water here with no way of finding help. Let's go!", exclaimed Ash.

He put his rebreather back on and began to swim towards the island that the building was located on, and he noticed the others following suit behind him, ready to find out what was going on and where exactly they all were. A few minutes later, the group pulled themselves up onto the shore, where they dried off for a couple minutes and waited to plan their next move. They soon noticed that there was a cave entrance right in front of the shore they had landed on, and they decided to walk through the cave to find what was on the other side.

"I'm kinda worried, you guys. We don't even know what this place is, much less who even lives here.", exclaimed Iris as the group walked through the cave.

"Come on, Iris! You've got to be optimistic once in a while!", encouraged Cilan, trying to cheer her up. "Just think of it as another one of our adventures!"

"I'm excited, but I'm still scared that we're going to be lost and never find our way off this weird island.", confessed Iris sheepishly.

"That's fine, Iris. Everybody has a right to be scared sometimes. Besides, the cave exit is right over there!", exclaimed Gary enthusiastically as he pointed to the exit in front of him.

"All right! Let's just find out where we are already!", exclaimed Ash as he took the first steps out of the cave.

He began to look around as the others began to walk out, noticing the entrance to the massive stone building being directly in front of him, and the noticeably familiar figure standing behind it. Ash squinted his eyes to get a better look at the person by the entrance, until his eyes widened in shock. Wallace, the former Hoenn Champion and Contest Master, was standing behind the door to the building, and if he just turned around, the group's conspiracy and efforts for the past month would be ruined forever.

"Wait a minute… isn't that Wallace?", whispered Dawn, but she could see the former Champion perk up at the faraway mention of his name.

Ash and Dawn both winced, since they knew the group's time as secret fugitives was almost up. All they could hope for was that he just shrugged off the mention of his name from behind him, but that also ended when the others started to talk amongst themselves as well.

Sssh! Be quiet before he notices us!", whispered Ash, causing the group to shut up and stop talking, but that was the last straw for them.

Wallace had fully turned around from the building's entrance and had started to walk over to them, a suspicious expression on his face. Everybody in the group winced to themselves, surely knowing that they were absolutely done for now. The former Champion of Hoenn had noticed the group behind him from when he first turned around, but it was when he walked over that he recognized some of the people standing by the cave exit.

He knew a few of these people, that being Ash Ketchum, Dawn Berlitz, Brock Harrison, and a few more from his time at the 2001 Wallace Cup in Sinnoh, but that wasn't the part that shook him to his core. These kids were all supposed to be dead. Wiped out in the explosion at Indigo Plateau almost a month ago, due to Lance's miscalculations about how and where Giovanni was going to strike next with Rainbow Rocket early on in the conflict.

"Oh my Arceus... wow.", stammered Wallace as he fainted to the ground in total shock.

* * *

That's the end of the chapter! This will be the first part of another two-part chapter, so expect all the conflicts in Hoenn to come to a fiery finish in the next chapter, which I hope to be uploaded next week. As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	19. XVIII - Primal Clash: Part 2

**I'm back, everyone! With another weekly update in the books, this story is progressing along really well, if I do say so myself. The story is just about to enter a new phase with the events in Hoenn coming to a climactic end, and you can expect more adventures and action to occur like always in this chapter and the following ones as well. Stay tuned for more updates in the future!  
**

 **Here's some review responses, and then onto the story.**

 **Nutellagirl: I'm glad you're enjoying the small shipping moments I like to throw into every chapter or so, and I appreciate the support in general.**

 **Kishinaract: Thank you so much for being a big fan and supporting the story! I really appreciate this kind of support from anyone who decides to give it. You all really motivate me to keep working hard and pump out new chapters consistently because you want this story to continue, and I'm really glad about that.**

 **Now, onto the latest chapter!  
**

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Sky Pillar**_

Brock rushed over towards Wallace, who had just passed out and hit the ground instantly after recognizing him and the others.

It was bad enough that a former Champion knew about their whereabouts and that they were still alive, but now he had passed out and showed no signs of waking up yet.

"Oh, Arceus. This is bad… ", muttered Leaf, looking at the situation in front of her.

"What if he tells Lance and the other Champions? Then we'll be so dead… ", she continued.

"Either way, we have to get Wallace to wake up as soon as we can, or else we'll be in even bigger trouble.", exclaimed Brock as he knelt down to check on Wallace.

"Wallace! Are you okay! Come on, you've got to get up!", exclaimed Brock as he shook the former Hoenn Champion, trying to wake him up.

A few minutes later, the group collectively sighed in relief as Wallace started to breathe again and his eyes shot open, immediately noticing them as he sat straight up on the ground.

"What the... how long was I out for? I still have to go all the way up… ", murmured Wallace quietly, noticing the concerned stares of the group.

"You were only out for a few minutes, but I guess it was for a good reason… ", explained Ash sheepishly as he shrugged.

"Wait… how are you all even alive! I thought you all died in the explosion at Indigo Plateau a few weeks ago.", asked Wallace in confusion.

"Yeah… we managed to escape the building before Giovanni completely blew it up. Just please don't tell the other Champions that we're still alive, since that could completely mess up our plans.", exclaimed Dawn.

"What kind of plans are you even talking about?", asked Wallace suspiciously as he stood up from the ground.

"Well, to give an example, we just tried to stop Archie from aggravating Kyogre earlier today, but it didn't work out so well. Kyogre escaped and Archie flooded us out of the Seafloor Cavern, and we washed up around here.", explained Serena.

"You were fighting against Archie just now? Why, you'd have to be insane to go up against him and win! He's one of the toughest team leaders on the planet, and he has Rainbow Rocket's support to back him up!", shouted Wallace in shock.

"Well, at least we tried. The four of us helped beat Maxie and Archie along with Lance three years ago, so we thought we could do it again.", added May, pointing to herself, Max, Ash, and Brock.

Wallace faltered for a second before regaining his elegant composure. "You're kidding, right? You were the ones who defeated Archie and Maxie with Lance three years ago?", he asked.

"We couldn't have done it without Lance, though. He saved all of us from Team Magma and helped us out in calming down Groudon and Kyogre back then.", exclaimed Ash.

"Well, considering I was away at an inter-regional meeting back then, it was really helpful of Lance to go undercover at the time. Now that you mention it, the reason why Aqua and Magma did attack at that time was probably because my Elite Four and I were away at that conference when it happened.", explained Wallace sheepishly.

"Okay, can we get down to business first?", interrupted Barry, who looked exhausted having to deal with this conversation for what seemed like forever.

"Where are we, and what even is this building in front of us?", he asked impatiently.

"Well, this is the legendary Sky Pillar. Constructed by the Draconids a thousand years ago, it allowed them to climb high up into the sky in order to summon and commune with Rayquaza if there was any problem it needed to fix in the region.", explained Wallace.

He started to walk towards the building, and the others began to walk behind him as they made their way back to the entrance to the worn-down stone tower.

"So it was basically a place where they could reach Rayquaza?", asked Iris with awe as she followed Wallace and took their first steps into the old tower.

"I think I actually have heard about this place before. I'm pretty sure you could try and talk to Rayquaza, maybe even let it answer your wish for the good of the region.", commented Leaf.

"Really? I didn't remember that in grade school, Leaf. Did you learn that at your fancy old G-Men boot camp?", snarked Gary sarcastically.

"Oh yeah… you're one of Lance's commanders he told me that was supposedly scouting Kanto for any Rainbow Rocket members there.", murmured Wallace, until he came to a realization.

"Let me guess, you don't want me to tell Lance that you're all the way down in Hoenn either?", asked Wallace, rolling his eyes due to how obvious her answer would be.

"Yeah. I was scouting Kanto for RR members, and I led the raid on their Celadon City base, which is where I found them.", explained Leaf as she pointed to the rest of the group.

"Oh, I see. Now, I think we should concentrate on getting to the top faster before Kyogre and Groudon start fighting and destroying the region.", exclaimed Wallace as he grabbed a ladder and started to climb up it.

"Wait. Kyogre and Groudon are already out on the surface again?", asked Ash worriedly.

"Yes, and they've already ruined some underground rocks by traveling right under the Earth's crust, causing massive rainstorms and harsh sunlight to appear in intervals all around the region.", explained Wallace.

"That's not good… we have to get moving. Come on!", shouted Brock as he raced to another ladder and began climbing on it as fast as he could.

Some of the group responded by sending out some of their Flying Pokemon so they could ride on them up to the top, while others found more ladders to climb up and stairs that they could walk on to reach the next floor.

"How many floors does this place even have? The walls seem to stretch upward forever!", cried Iris as she stared up, trying to find the top.

"My mentor used to tell me that this tower was fifty stories tall, but I don't think that's completely accurate.", exclaimed Wallace sheepishly.

"It certainly looks fifty stories tall… good thing all that ladder climbing is gonna give me a serious workout today!", exclaimed Kenny as he flexed his muscles.

The others sweatdropped and some fell to the ground in laughter, while Wallace just looked on from afar.

"Kids these days… ", he murmured under his breath as he rolled his eyes.

"Kenny, please. Just shut up and climb the ladder, please. It would help all of us if you did.", exclaimed Paul as he looked down on him from his spot on the ladder.

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with.", muttered Kenny as he put his hands on the ladder and began to climb.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

"It's been awfully quiet so far. Either Rainbow Rocket isn't doing anything at all, or they're just performing small missions that didn't show up on our radars.", muttered Lance as he got up from his desk chair.

"I hope they're just not doing anything. If they've completed more of their missions without us picking up on them, then we're way behind on trying to defeat them.", added Cynthia.

"My agents back in Kalos haven't picked up anything big from them ever since this whole ruckus started. Maybe they're shifting their focus from one region to the next, just how they did from Kanto to Hoenn.", explained Diantha.

"But why did Giovanni skip searching through Johto then? Maybe because he knows my agents have a big presence there, even bigger than Kanto… ", muttered Lance.

"Don't forget he knows that Clair is literally a Gym Leader there. He wouldn't want to face off against your cousin without knowing that she would alert you immediately.", explained Cynthia.

"I'm just glad nothing big is happening in Unova right now. I don't have a lot of G-Men agents scouting the region right now, but the Elite Four are also traveling the region and helping out since the Unova League was postponed this year.", said Alder as he got up from his chair as well.

"But where do you think Giovanni will target next once he's done going through Hoenn with Maxie? What if he goes to Sinnoh, Unova, or even back to Johto?", asked Lance.

"We have to wait and see where he heads next. All we can do right now about it is to have more G-Men agents patrol key areas in each region that hasn't been targeted yet, and we should do that as soon as possible.", exclaimed Cynthia.

"I still have most of my agents patrolling here through Kanto, although it seems that Giovanni's done targeting places over here for a while now. I'll just move them to Johto as soon as I can.", commented Lance.

"A lot of my agent groups in Sinnoh are still stationed in big cities such as Veilstone and Sunyshore, but I should make some of them patrol the routes so they could catch RR troops before they try anything serious if they ever target Sinnoh.", added Cynthia.

Suddenly, Lance's Pokegear started to ring, and he picked it up quickly, recognizing Steven's caller ID on the screen as he answered the call.

"Steven? Yeah, I'm here. What is it?", he asked.

As Steven was busy talking to him, Lance's eyes widened in shock, which soon turned to fear and desperation as Steven finished talking over the phone, which frightened Cynthia, Diantha, and Alder as to what was happening down in Hoenn. Lance slowly hung up from the call and closed his Pokegear, having turned around to face the three other Champions in the room, who all looked at him with scared and worried expressions on their faces.

"I have bad news. Steven called from Hoenn, and he said that Archie and Maxie have awoken two super-ancient Pokemon native to the region that Giovanni wants to capture for Rainbow Rocket.", explained Lance.

"However, they failed to successfully capture them, and now they're terrorizing the region, causing rainstorms and harsh sunlight all across Hoenn. Steven, Wallace, and their Elite Four are trying to stop Maxie and Archie from capturing the super-ancient Pokemon again or aggravating it again.", he finished.

"Arceus… that's terrible. Is there anything we can do about it?", asked Cynthia, who looked like she was going to burst into tears.

Lance slowly shook his head. "I tried asking that same question, but he said he would be fine. He's got a whole personal G-Men squad, Wallace, and his Elite Four to help him out."

"I guess you're right. Steven already has a lot or people helping him out down there, and we shouldn't focus all our forces to Hoenn if that would leave the other regions wide open for an attack.", added Lance.

"I just hope Steven's going to be all right. We don't want to lose a fellow Champion, especially with what we're dealing with now.", exclaimed Cynthia.

"We wouldn't want to lose Wallace or the Hoenn Elite Four either. Steven may be powerful, but Archie and Maxie won't stand a chance against the combined forces he has at his disposal.", explained Lance.

"All right. Now let's just get back to work before we get even more lazy today.", exclaimed Alder as he walked back to his chair.

"Well, that's surprising. I thought you were one for lazing around like a Slaking almost every day, but some things do change over time.", said Diantha in surprise.

"True. I just hope Steven and his group in Hoenn can stop Archie and Maxie there, since that would be a huge victory for us.", reiterated Cynthia as she got back to her desk, ready to start working again.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Cave of Origin**_

"Arceus! How deep is this place!", shouted Sidney as he stared down into one of the hollow sections of the cave.

Wallace had told them that the cave had vast amounts of primal and super-ancient energy that were attracting Groudon and Kyogre, but it would take at least a few hours just to reach the dwelling places of the primal energy.

"There's no time to lose! We have to follow them!", exclaimed Drake, wildly pointing towards Archie and Maxie, who were busy scurrying through the cave as he spoke.

"Yeah! Let's move!", shouted Steven's G-Men commander as well.

He ran ahead of Steven and his Elite Four and went straight for Maxie and Archie, who he tackled onto the ground, shocking the two RR Admins, who believed they could avoid Steven and his team while going down to meet Groudon and Kyogre.

"Gah! You seriously didn't have to do that! We were trying to stop Groudon and Kyogre for your sakes!", cried Maxie as he was pinned under the commander's foot.

"Yeah, by catching them and giving them straight to Giovanni as a gift! We don't want him using two super-ancient Pokemon to try and take over the world just like what you two did, so we're doing the world a favor by stopping you.", retorted Steven.

"Just leave us alone, would ya! You'll thank us later once we free Groudon and Kyogre from destroying the world, that's what.", exclaimed Archie.

"No way, Archie! You'll be staying right there once we find a way to deal with Groudon and Kyogre down at the bottom here.", snapped Phoebe angrily.

Steven instructed his personal G-Men squad to keep watch on Maxie and Archie as he and his Elite Four started to make their way down the rough stone stairs on their way towards Groudon and Kyogre at the bottom.

* * *

"Man, do you think we'll ever have a break from this?", asked one of the agents wistfully as he looked up at his friends.

He was applying handcuffs to an already-gagged Maxie, who was mumbling some incomprehensible moaning speech thanks to the gag that was covering his mouth at the moment.

"I mean, I love being a G-Men agent and all, but just in the past month we've all had to deal with so much more than we ever had to in our careers, thanks to Team Rainbow Rocket. Do you think we'll get it off easy one day after this?", the agent finished.

"I sure hope so. If this is over in a few months, then maybe I can get my spring break on time and can actually enjoy it instead of being called back a month early or something like that.", exclaimed another agent.

"This will never be over, ya scamps! as long as Team Rainbow Rocket exists, then we will take over the world under Giovanni's rule! Your pathetic government will perish to our supreme rule of every region!", yelled Archie manically.

"Hey! Can we get this guy a gag too? It really seems like he needs one!", exclaimed the agent standing closest to Archie.

"You got it, Commander!", shouted a lower-ranking officer as he grabbed a dirty rag from his backpack.

He tossed the rag over to his mission commander, who quickly tied it around Archie's mouth, making sure that he wouldn't annoy his team again with his crazed and insane speeches and monologues along with Maxie, who was already gagged up next to him. Archie started to say something that wasn't understandable to the agents at all thanks to the gag over his mouth, and they just ignored his mumbling as they sat down by the stairs, one of the agents still watching Maxie and Archie and making sure they wouldn't escape thanks to their handcuffs and gags.

"I sure hope Steven finishes up soon down there. I wouldn't want to stay here in this cave for hours.", exclaimed another agent as he took Maxie and Archie's Pokeballs from their pockets and put them away in a safe.

"The only thing we can do now is wait for however long we need to. Just keep a good attitude, troops!", exclaimed the commander.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Sky Pillar**_

"Are you sure this thing is fifty stories tall? It feels almost like five hundred with all the ladders we've been climbing so far… ", muttered Barry in exhaustion as he stepped off another ladder.

"Yes, it's fifty stories tall. It actually doesn't look that tall once you realize we only have to climb a series of ladders and walk a bit before we reach the top, but it's still a workout.", explained Drew.

"I know we can make it! We just have to keep staying positive, that's all.", encouraged Dawn, who pushed herself off another ladder as the others climbed below her.

"Woah! Look at this, guys!", exclaimed Ash as he pointed towards the far wall. "It's some kind of giant mural!"

The mural that Ash was pointing to was some sort of ancient drawings that at first glance depicted some form of Groudon and Kyogre clashing, but the top half of the mural was covered up by the upper floors of the tower.

"My old master used to tell me about this. Thousands of years ago there was a war between Groudon and Kyogre over the overflowing natural energy that was part of Hoenn at the time, and at the same time meteor showers fell and created what is now Meteor Falls.", explained Wallace.

"My tutor told me all about these legends back when I used to study with him for school, but I had no idea they were actually true. Guess you learn something new every day.", commented Drew.

"I'm not normally one to believe legends and folktales like this, but I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes, and this just confirms it right here.", added Leaf as she looked on in awe.

"The mural seems to stretch as far as the tower's height, except for a small room at the very top of the tower. Do you think there could be more information to be revealed once we reach the upper floors?", asked Gary.

"I have no idea, but I shouldn't be focusing on that right now. My job is to summon Rayquaza and allow it to stop Groudon and Kyogre from fighting down by Sootopolis City, but you can look at all the murals you want.", exclaimed Wallace bitterly as he climbed ahead of the group.

"You're even supposed to be dead, according to the media, and you should be grateful that I'm not even turning you into the G-Men right now. You can follow me if you want, but Rayquaza is our number one priority here.", finished the former Hoenn Champion.

"Sure thing, Mr. Reyes. Let's go right now!", exclaimed Misty enthusiastically.

"Please, call me Wallace. I think we're way past the point of formal greetings anyway.", he explained, an annoyed expression on his face.

"Whatever you say, Wallace. Let's just keep going and not distract ourselves with things that aren't important to us right now.", exclaimed Ash as he climbed up another ladder.

Wallace groaned silently and rolled his eyes. "That's what I said in the first place… but every group's got to have its leader. ", he murmured under his breath.

"Look, Mr. Wallace. I know you have your own agenda with Rayquaza and all, but we're counting on you to not spill the beans that we're still alive, and we're staying right here to make sure that doesn't happen.", exclaimed Drew.

"All right, all right… ", mumbled Wallace as he sighed under his breath.

It was his dumb luck that he was stuck with these teenagers, but they were counting on him to protect them, and he was a man of his word after all. He just decided that he would shut up for now and not say a word once this was all over, but he would let them go on their own errands as well.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Cave of Origin**_

"Does anybody even know how deep underground this place goes? I feel like I'm going to suffocate from a lack of fresh air soon.", exclaimed Steven as he continued to walk through the cave passage along with his Elite Four.

"We're at least a few stories beneath the surface, but it still seems like the cave goes on for much longer down here. I hope we find Groudon and Kyogre soon, or else we'll be stuck here forever.", added Phoebe.

"Is it just me… or is it starting to get a lot warmer now than before? I can feel the humidity increasing with each step.", asked Sidney as well.

"If that's true, then we must be getting close to the bottom of the cave. Groudon and Kyogre are getting closer by the second.", exclaimed Steven as he pointed deeper into the cave.

"I sure hope so. We better be prepared for anything down there, so stay sharp, everyone.", reassured Glacia as she followed Steven, who was leading the group through the passage.

"I hope everybody brought lots of Ultra Balls and Timer Balls, since we're going to need lots of them if we want to stall and catch both Groudon and Kyogre.", added Steven.

He held up a few Ultra Balls as an example, prompting everyone else to check their bags and pockets for a few spare Ultra Balls, with some even pulling out special Heavy Balls, which were extremely effective against heavy Pokemon like Groudon and Kyogre.

"I guess we have enough to stall Groudon and Kyogre for at least ten minutes or so. Let's keep going!", the Hoenn Champion exclaimed as he followed the passage.

Steven turned right, following the cave's direction as he came face-to-face with a narrow door that seemed to connect the room he was in now with another room in front of him. He could feel the temperature begin to rise with each step closer he took, along with being able to hear the sound of rushing water crash against the rocks. He paused for a moment and waited for the others to catch up before starting a discussion about how they should implement their strategy to counter Groudon and Kyogre's super-ancient power and make sure their threat to the whole region was neutralized as fast as possible.

"This is it, guys. If I'm not mistaken, both Groudon and Kyogre are behind this passageway, and we better be completely ready before we take them on. Is everyone's Pokemon fully healed?", asked Steven.

"Mine are great and ready to rock! I've got tons of leftover Full Restores to heal my Pokemon and any of yours if they get hurt in the battle.", exclaimed Sidney as he put his thumb up in encouragement.

"I have some leftover Max Potions and Full Restores from my last few battles, so I'm all ready.", added Phoebe.

The others also confirmed their encouragement, and after a few minutes, Steven gave the clear to cross through the small and narrow cave passage, which they did as the temperature got even hotter and the sound of rushing water became more prominent in their ears. Steven shielded his eyes from the glow of the red-hot magma as he entered the next room while also noticing a separate path of water right next to a river of magma, which were divided by a line of rocks that separated the two.

"Interesting… these rocks seem to be untouched for a very long time, just from what I'm seeing, but two separate rivers of magma and water absolutely cannot be a natural occurrence.", exclaimed Steven.

"There's no way two rivers of completely different things such as magma and water would exist from a natural cause, so maybe ancient people constructed these pathways for Groudon and Kyogre to travel through underground.", exclaimed Steven.

"So maybe that's why both of them broke out from underground and up onto the surface before going back under. Maybe they're going to end up here soon, and we'll be prepared for that to happen.", added Drake.

Suddenly, the group heard some rumblings coming from the ground underneath them, and they ran over to the right side of the chamber where the rivers led from, only to see Groudon and Kyogre slowly approaching in the magma and water rivers.

"Perfect. We got them right in their tracks.", grinned Steven with determination. "Go, Metagross!"

He sent out his Shiny Metagross just as Groudon and Kyogre were approaching him and the others in the chamber, and the others soon did the same, sending out their powerful Pokemon to aid their Champion in the fight.

"Metagross, hear my command! Mega Evolve and use Flash Cannon!", exclaimed Steven as he raised his Mega Stickpin into the air, creating waves of light that surrounded Metagross completely.

Metagross then broke out of the light in its Mega Form and released its Flash Cannon attack on Groudon, sending a beam of gray energy directly onto the Continental Pokemon's side. The attack caused Groudon to recoil a bit, but it didn't do much damage as the super-ancient Pokemon attempted to continue traversing the magma river to reach the primal energies inside the massive cave.

"Steel attacks aren't doing any damage… try attacking Kyogre with Psychic!", commanded Steven again, pointing towards the Sea Basin Pokemon swimming in the water river in front of him.

Mega Metagross's eyes glowed blue as it unleashed a wave of powerful psychic energy the sent Kyogre back a few feet slowly into the back wall, but the attack barely did any damage to it at all as Kyogre continued on its way.

"Steven, you heal your Pokemon and let me handle this. Shiftry, you're up!", exclaimed Sidney as he stepped in front of his Champion and sent out one of his powerful Pokemon from its Pokeball.

"Shiftry, use Leaf Storm on both of them!", shouted Sidney.

The Wicked Pokemon jumped up into the air at Sidney's orders, with hundreds of leaves appearing around it, ready to be released at a moment's notice. Shiftry then unleashed the massive amount of leaves onto Groudon and Kyogre, dealing super-effective damage to both Pokemon.

"Leaf Storm lowers Shiftry's Special Attack, so you should stick with physical moves now, Sidney! You don't want to risk losing a Pokemon in this fight!", commented Glacia as she was commanding her Froslass against Kyogre.

"You're right. Use Razor Leaf!", exclaimed Sidney as he pointed at both Groudon and Kyogre.

His Pokemon responded by unleashing a barrage of razor-sharp leaves at both of the super-ancient Pokemon, dealing more doses of critical damage to both of them and weakening them further.

"Now it's my turn. Salamence, use Thunder Fang, quick!", commanded Drake as he pointed towards Kyogre.

The Dragon Pokemon's teeth quickly became covered in electricity while it launched itself at Kyogre, dealing more super-effective damage towards the Sea Basin Pokemon as it tried to continue swimming through the water river.

"If my predictions are correct, then Groudon is weak to Ice-type attacks. Froslass, use Ice Beam on Groudon now!", exclaimed Glacia loudly.

Her Froslass charged up a multitude of ice energy in front of its mouth, and let it loose after a few seconds, landing right on Groudon's side and dealing even more super-effective damage to the Continental Pokemon. However, Groudon still looked unfazed despite all the critical damage Sidney's Shiftry and Glacia's Froslass had done to it, and it continued to slowly walk in the magma river almost as if nothing had happened to it.

"Why aren't our attacks doing any damage to them! I thought we had our strategy completely planned out to go without error, but what is going on here!", cried Steven in frustration.

"I don't know, but it seems that Groudon and Kyogre have massive amounts of defensive capabilities which allows them to withstand any attacks we throw at them. We have to keep giving it our all to make sure they're both weak enough to be subdued, whether that means catching them or making them retreat back to where they came from.", exclaimed Drake.

"Wait a minute! They're getting away!", yelled Sidney.

He was frantically pointing at Groudon and Kyogre, who were slowly walking past them towards a narrower section of both magma and aqua rivers which was followed by the walls closing in. The legendary Pokemon continued to walk into the narrow section towards the darkness as the group was arguing amongst themselves.

"Crap! We can't follow them through there, so we have to go back!", cursed Steven under his breath.

"Then what are we waiting for! Let's move!", shouted Glacia as she ran in front of Steven.

The group quickly registered Glacia's explanation, and began to follow her back from where they came, starting with running through the current room and back into the narrow passageway that had led there. They ran through the passage and back to the last few rooms they had explored, ready to find where Groudon and Kyogre had wandered off to.

* * *

Commander John Simmons of the Hoenn G-Men had seen a lot of things in his life. From rising through the ranks of the basic G-Men platoons to leading the Champion's own personal command team, but he had never seen a conflict as big as this in his life. From the attacks on Indigo Plateau in Kanto to what was going on right now below him with Groudon and Kyogre and his boss, this whole month had been a cacophony of attacks, mistakes, and counter-attacks involving numerous legendary Pokemon or leaders of villainous organizations such as Rainbow Rocket.

"John! We ambushed Groudon and Kyogre downstairs, but they got away. We're backtracking to find them again, but we'll call you again if we need more assistance from your team up there.", came Steven's voice from his communicator.

"You got it, boss. My team and I are standing by at the moment. If you call again, we'll be ready.", he exclaimed.

He shut off the channel on his communicator and turned to face the rest of his G-Men team. Some of them were standing next to the tied-up Maxie and Archie, making sure that they wouldn't escape right under their noses, while others were lounging around on the rocks, relaxing as they waited for more commands. A few minutes later, Commander Simmons was about to relax and take a break until the next call from Steven, until his communicator started to ring again, registering the ID as his boss's own.

He opened up the channel and pressed a button on the communicator, hearing his boss's voice on the other end.

"Yeah, it's us again! We're going to need some help down here. We've found Groudon and Kyogre again, and we're following them into the next roo-", exclaimed Steven's voice through John's communicator.

"Steven! Steven, are you okay! I'll be right there!", he exclaimed, worried for his boss.

After getting no response from the other end, he frustratingly shut off the communicator channel and whirled around to face his privates, which seemed surprised by the determined tone of their boss.

"All of you, come with me. We need to help out Steven and the others before something terribly wrong happens to them.", explained the commander as he pointed down the cave path.

"You three! Stay here and make sure those two won't escape while we're gone. Let's move out!", he finished as he pointed towards three privates standing near him.

"Uh, you got it, boss! We'll stay right where we are!", exclaimed one of them as the others ran downwards on the path.

* * *

The three privates stood their guard next to Maxie and Archie as they laid down on the ground, still tied up and unable to move while they continued to stand next to them. Suddenly, one of the agents noticed one of Maxie's Pokeballs wiggling on his belt, shaking rapidly as if it wanted to be released immediately. He watched the device continue to shake for a few more moments before turning to his comrades.

"Uh, guys? You might want to see this for a second.", exclaimed the agent as he pointed towards Maxie and the shaking Pokeball.

The other two agents walked towards their comrade and stared at what he had described in front of them, noticing the shaking Pokeball clipped onto an unmoving Maxie's belt as well.

"What do you think's inside that thing?", asked one of the agents worriedly.

"The bigger question is, what would happen if it got out of the Pokeball? If it's one of his loyal Pokemon, it would destroy us and set both of them free to attack everybody else.", exclaimed the second agent.

The third agent nodded his head grimly, an extremely worried expression on his face.

"If that's true then that's"

The shaking Pokeball suddenly burst open, startling the three agents and revealing an angry Kadabra standing in front of them. The agents felt themselves being lifted up into the air and being thrown across the room, hitting the back wall with a thud and knocking them unconscious. The Kadabra walked over to its owner and the man lying next to him, and sent out a slight psychic shockwave that broke the metal bonds that had tied up their arms and legs.

Now free from their bonds, Maxie and Archie slowly pushed themselves to their feet and got up, only to face a Kadabra that Maxie slowly walked up to with glee and excitement.

"Excellent job, Kadabra. Now let's get out of this dump and find Groudon and Kyogre again. After all, we have the power to control them and those Elite Four members don't.", exclaimed Maxie, an evil grin on his face.

"All right! Let's get those legendary scamps on our side back again and give them both to Giovanni! We won't fail this time, that's for sure.", exclaimed Archie as he ran down the path that the agents had gone just a few minutes earlier.

"Wait up, Archibald! You can't do this without me!", shouted Maxie as he chased after his partner in crime, ready to find Groudon and Kyogre with him.

"I told you to never call me that name!"

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Sky Pillar**_

"Guys, check this out! The floor above us covers the entire frame of the building, and there's no empty space between the edge of the floor and the outside wall.", exclaimed Ash as he pointed upwards.

"It certainly sounds interesting, and I say we should check it out. I'll just go first to make sure everything's okay up there.", continued Wallace as he climbed up the ladder to the next floor.

The group watched the former Champion of Hoenn made his way up the ladder and onto the next floor, and waited in silence for him to give an update whether it was safe to continue climbing to that floor or not. Wallace's head poked through the floor's ladder shaft as he looked around at the nineteen teenagers standing in front of him, before standing back up and looking at the back wall of the room. A few seconds later, his head popped up again and he gave a thumbs-up, signifying that it was okay to enter the room.

"What took you so long anyway? Were there some traps that you didn't want us to step on or something?", asked Barry as he climbed up the ladder and onto the next floor.

"I'll explain everything once everyone else gets up here, so you just have to wait a little bit longer.", exclaimed Wallace as Barry pouted in impatience.

Once everyone else had pulled themselves off the ladder and onto this next floor, Wallace walked over to the back wall of the room, which had four lines of what looked like writing engraved onto it.

"I'd like you all to direct your attention to this piece of writing, which looks to be a thousand years old, around the same time when this tower was built. It's written in the ancient Hoennian language used by the Draconids and Sootopolians millennia ago, so I can luckily read it for you all.", explained Wallace.

"It seems to be a prophecy of some sorts about events to come in the future, but what's interesting about it is the specific wording that surrounds it. I'll read it out for you just to give you an idea of what it means.", he finished.

 _Eighteen and one chosen shall indeed rise_

 _To prevent evil from claiming its ultimate prize_

 _The last true guardian's heir will lead_

 _Against the enemy who wants the world to bleed_

 _The legends will have to be restored_

 _If this world's light will not be obscured_

"Wow… that seems very specific. What does it all mean though?", asked Gary.

Wallace shrugged. "I have no clear idea, but it seems to be referencing whatever Giovanni seems to be planning from the attacks he's done all over the world to capture Legendary Pokemon, like the line about the legends is saying."

"That may be true, but you also think that the eighteen and one mentioned up there are referring to us?", asked Misty in realization.

"I don't know, but the similarities are clear. There are already nineteen of you here and nineteen people described up there, and you've already done a lot to help out the Legendary Pokemon. Blowing up a Rainbow Rocket base certainly won't make Archer track down any more Legendaries to capture for Giovanni, that's for sure.", explained Wallace.

"Yeah, but what does that line about 'the last guardian's heir' mean? Could it be referring to one of us?", asked Ritchie.

"Nothing is clear to me yet, but it could be a possibility based off the similarities shown here.", Wallace answered.

"Don't worry, though. Most lines in prophecies have double meanings, so you won't really understand what it's trying to say until it actually occurs. Don't get so wound up trying to figure it out, since we have to help Steven out by summoning Rayquaza.", added Wallace.

"You're right. We should keep moving up to the top of this place as fast as we can so we can summon Rayquaza as quickly as possible.", exclaimed Brock as he started to climb up onto the next ladder.

Ash watched the others climb up the ladders and talk to each other, but he was silent for a few minutes as he tried to decipher what he just heard. The line about 'the last true guardian's heir', seemed really suspicious to him, since actual Aura Guardians hadn't existed in bunches since the time of Sir Aaron. He couldn't think of any full-fledged Aura Guardians he had met in the past five and a half years, but he was still struggling to figure out what it meant for him and the others. Was somebody in the group really the heir to an Aura Guardian? It put him on edge as he tried to figure out who exactly would be the correct answer to that question.

Eventually, he shrugged off the worried notions and thoughts in his head and tried to focus on happier thoughts that soothed his mind. Wallace was right when he said that it would take time to truly understand the words in a prophecy since each line had a double meaning, and he would just have to wait and see how everything would turn out in the end.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Cave of Origin**_

"There it is! We've reached Groudon and Kyogre!", exclaimed Steven as he stopped in front of another narrow cave passageway.

He was standing in front of the passage that presumably led to the chamber that Groudon and Kyogre were currently traveling through, and he was preparing for the conflict ahead of him along with his Elite Four.

"Steven, these temperature readings at this level are immensely high. We can't stay here for much longer, and your communicator's already fried. We can stay for as long as we can, but we have to subdue Groudon and Kyogre while we're at it.", exclaimed Commander Simmons.

He and his team of G-Men agents ran up to Steven and the others, exchanging a few greetings before going back to discussing the bigger matters at hand at the moment for them.

"Thanks for all the help, guys, but we need to catch Groudon and Kyogre before they pose an even bigger threat to us and the region, and we need to do it fast.", added Drake quickly.

"Alright. We'll stand by here for backup while you all go inside. The heat there could be at an extreme level, so you'll only have a few minutes at best before you all die because of the heat.", exclaimed one of the agents as he held up a screen showing a temperature graph.

Alright. Is everybody ready?", asked Sidney encouragingly.

After receiving nods from the rest of the group, he led them into the narrow passageway and into the next room, disappearing from sight as the agents watched them walk further and further away.

* * *

"So, all we're supposed to do is wait here, after all the emergency bullcrap you just yelled at us about?", asked an agent bitterly.

"We're doing the best thing we can at the moment. If there's any chance Maxie and Archie escaped from our comrades back at the entrance, then we have to be here to stop them before they go for Steven and the others.", explained the commander.

"I guess that makes sense, sir, but it's just really boring down here. Stuck in this dark cave and just waiting for all of them to finish up the work. Uh, no offense, sir.", exclaimed one of the lower-ranked agents.

"I know it's frustrating, but we're doing all we can to protect the Champion, the Elite Four, and the whole region from Groudon and Kyogre's wrath.", reassured the commander.

Suddenly, the squad heard footsteps approaching from the way they had all came from, and the agents all turned around determinedly, ready to face whoever was walking towards them. All they could see was two figures masked in shadow walking towards themselves, which were the only people standing in the way of Steven, Sidney, Phoebe, Glacia, and Drake as they fought against Groudon and Kyogre. As the two figures walked closer, the shadows covering their faces disappeared, revealing the maniacal faces of both Maxie and Archie as they approached the agents. Commander Simmons and his troops prepared while they could as the two walked ever so slowly towards them, ready to fight again.

"You all tried so hard down here, but your efforts will be for nothing without these marvels of technology.", exclaimed Maxie as he pulled out a cube-shaped device, with Archie doing the same.

"You see, your friends in the next room only have a few minutes before they die of heat exhaustion, but that's most likely after they get completely destroyed by Groudon and Kyogre both.", added Archie.

"With our Magma and Aqua Suits, we are able to stand right next to the two super-ancient Pokemon without dying immediately, since they resist the heat Groudon creates and the water Kyogre manipulates as well.", explained the former Magma Leader.

"And what is that supposed to mean?", asked one of the agents, gritting his teeth in determination.

"Oh, just that we can stand up and capture Groudon and Kyogre, unlike those five scamps in the room next door.", exclaimed Archie as he was laughing maniacally.

"We won't let you reach them back there, even if we lose the battle or our lives. We have to do whatever it takes.", reinforced the commander as he grit his teeth,

Are you ready, team? Commence attack formation Alpha!", he shouted as he pointed at Archie and Maxie.

The agents spread out around Maxie and Archie as they sent out their Pokemon, revealing multiple Arcanine, Metang, and Walrein from their Pokeballs as Archie and Maxie sent out their Sharpedo and Camerupt. The commander threw a Pokeball in front of him, revealing a Gallade that looked more than ready to crush Maxie and Archie to the ground. He grinned as the two RR Admins tried to back out of the fight, but they were surrounded on all sides by his team.

"Group A, attack now! Group B, stand by for orders!", exclaimed the commander as he pointed at Maxie and Archie's scared faces.

All the Arcanine the G-Men agents had sent out unleashed a barrage of Flamethrower, Fire Spin, and Fire Blast attacks among others towards Maxie and Archie, completely enveloping them inside the red-hot flames that remained once the attacks had finished. The commander stared determinedly at the spot where Maxie and Archie had stood as the fires died down, but what stood there utterly shocked him completely.

Maxie and Archie were both standing directly where the flames had burned just a few seconds earlier, the ground singed and burnt beneath their feet. However, they were each wearing some kind of protective suit that covered their entire bodies, including a clear helmet for their faces. Maxie was wearing an orange suit with an old Team Magma logo on the chest, while Archie had put on a blue suit with a Team Aqua logo from a few years ago as well. They smirked from underneath their helmets at the flabbergasted agents in front of them, ready to crush them and then move towards Steven and the others.

"Groups B and C, attack now! I don't care if it won't work or not!", shouted Commander Simmons as he frantically pointed towards Archie and Maxie again.

The Metang and Walrein the agents had sent out fired more Water-type and Steel-type attacks at Maxie and Archie, but when the smoke cleared again they were still standing like absolutely nothing had happened to them in the past few minutes.

"Camerupt, use Eruption.", exclaimed Maxie as he walked towards the commander eerily.

The Eruption Pokemon stomped his foot on the ground, creating a wide vertical plume of pure lava that wiped out most of the team's Pokemon, except for the commander's Gallade and a few others. The agents also felt the shockwave of the powerful attack, sending them backwards and some hitting the rocky walls and falling to the floor.

"Gallade, use Psycho Cut! Make sure they're down once and for all!", shouted the commander as he bent down to catch his breath.

Gallade flicked his arm blade at Maxie and Archie, sending a powerful psychic shockwave from the arm blade towards the two RR Admins. However, Archie's Sharpedo blocked the attack before it could deal damage to the Aqua and Magma suits the two were wearing. Commander Simmons, after seeing his team of agents fall at the hands of both Maxie and Archie, fell to the ground in exhaustion and collapsed on the floor, staring up at the two Admins as his consciousness tried to remain stable.

"As you can see, our Magma and Aqua suits can protect us from any kind of Pokemon attack as well as Groudon and Kyogre's elemental powers. It's honestly a great thing we dug these out from our storage bins a few months ago.", commented Maxie.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a Champion and his friends to destroy. See ya later, scamps!", exclaimed Archie wickedly.

He followed Maxie into the narrow passageway that connected the two chambers, ready to destroy whoever else stood in their way to capturing Groudon and Kyogre, even if those people were Steven and his Elite Four.

* * *

"John! John, do you copy? We only have a minute or so before we're done for, and we need you to help us out!", shouted Steven frantically.

The communicator remained silent as no words came out from the other end, leaving Steven disappointed and extremely worried for his friend and his team of agents. He turned back around frustratingly only to notice Groudon and Kyogre approaching him and the others slowly, directing themselves towards the primal energy stored in the ancient monoliths on the ceiling.

"We may have let them escape before, but we can't lose now.", commented Sidney as he tried to fan himself with his hand, but it didn't seem to be working very well.

"We're running out of time, but I know we can do this. Is everyone really ready this time?", asked Phoebe determinedly.

The others nodded their heads, expressing the same determination as Phoebe as they took out their Poke Balls. They were about to release their Pokemon and start fighting Groudon and Kyogre all over again, until footsteps from behind them startled them. They turned around to face the narrow passageway that interconnected the two chambers, only to see the Maxie and Archie walk through in some kind of matching space suits, both grinning wickedly from ear to ear.

"Maxie? Archie? What the hell is going on here!", shouted Drake, but not before he started coughing.

The immense heat was getting to him and the others in the chamber, but both Maxie and Archie seemed to be unaffected by the extremely high temperatures as they walked closer to the group.

"My, my. It's been a long time, everyone. I wouldn't expect our reunion to be in a place like this, but I've learned to always expect the unexpected.", commented Maxie, who looked like he was about to burst in insanity.

"If you two are here to capture Groudon and Kyogre again, then we'll stop you any way we possibly can and send you crying back to Giovanni in the next hour. You two don't stand a chance against us.", exclaimed Sidney.

"Maybe ya will, but ya can't stay here for much longer! Without a protective suit like the ones we're wearing, ya scamps can't survive the extreme heat in this room, leaving us with all the time we need to capture Kyogre and Groudon!", snarked Archie.

"I know that's the truth, but we can still try and fight back any way we can. Who's with me!", screamed Steven, trying to rally the troops together.

His efforts were to no avail, however, because after taking a look around the group he noticed the fatigue in the others' eyes and how tired and exhausted they were getting because of the high temperatures in the room.

"Steven… we have to retreat for now… make sure we don't die of heat exhaustion while we can… ", murmured Drake exhaustingly.

"We can't do that. We… still need to fight back… ", mumbled Steven slowly.

He then fell onto his knees in exhaustion, unable to stand up and try to fight back. Maxie and Archie watched as the rest of the Elite Four also tried to stand up to the heat and failed, leaving some on the ground or on their knees, watching Maxie and Archie as they approached Groudon and Kyogre. Maxie noticed Archie open a pocket in his Aqua Suit and pull out a Dark Ball, but he stopped his partner in crime as he swatted the powerful Pokeball out of his hand.

"Archie, don't do it yet. If my research is correct, absorbing enough primal energy will cause Groudon and Kyogre to revert to a much stronger form, one that they used to wield against each other in ancient times.", explained Maxie.

"I'll trust your research on this one, Maxie. I hope you're right!", exclaimed the former Aqua Leader.

Maxie grinned maniacally as both Groudon and Kyogre finally reached the heaps of primal energy located in the center of the room, where the rivers of magma and water came to meet in the center of the room. Once the two super-ancient Pokemon stopped under the monoliths of Primal Energy, Maxie and Archie watched as Groudon and Kyogre slowly became enveloped in a rough sphere that covered their entire bodies.

The sphere that covered Groudon had a massive symbol on its front that represented Omega, the same logo on the new Red Orb, while Kyogre's sphere had a symbol that depicted Alpha, which was also present on the new Blue Orb that Archie had with him. Steven could sense the massive amounts of elemental and primal energy coming from both of those spheres, and their combined amounts were stronger than anything that he had ever seen before. If Groudon and Kyogre were this strong in the ancient past, then they were definitely able to create landmasses and oceans with the amount of power they seemed to possess at the time.

Maxie and Archie continued to watch as Groudon and Kyogre broke out of the red and blue spheres, revealing two new forms that were undoubtedly much stronger than their previous normal form. Groudon's red body remained the same, but the black markings on its previous form had enlarged and were now filled to the brim with golden primal energy. It was much larger than it was previously, with its tail growing longer and its overall mass becoming gigantic as well. Kyogre, on the other hand, had become a darker shade of blue on its upper body and had its red markings on its body become bigger and change to a golden color filled with primal energy as well. Its overall size had increased to become much longer in length and its tail fins had grown from four to eight in total.

"Don't you see, Archie? Groudon and Kyogre have reverted to their ancient forms that once wreaked havoc across Hoenn. Now we can catch them in an even more powerful form and give them both to Giovanni!", shouted Maxie.

"Well, then what are we waiting for. Let's get them now!", exclaimed Archie while grinning maniacally.

"Sharpedo, use Hydro Pump!", the former Aqua Leader commanded as he pointed at Primal Groudon.

Sharpedo unleashed a high-pressure stream of water, that struck Primal Groudon for a direct hit, dealing critical damage to the legendary Pokemon which was already hurt in its last battle with Steven and the Elite Four.

"All right. Go, Dark Ball!", shouted Maxie as he flung the special Pokeball towards Primal Groudon intensely.

Primal Groudon noticed the Dark Ball spinning towards it, but it didn't try to resist as it was enveloped for a second time inside of the spherical device. The Dark Ball shook three more times as slowly as it could, leaving Maxie waiting with suspense to see if it would finally be Dark Ball then broke apart again, as Primal Groudon emerged from the device, looking more angry as ever. Maxie backed away in shock, as he was sure Groudon would have been caught this time.

Archie noticed Maxie's shocked expression as Primal Groudon broke out of the Dark Ball, and he wasn't sure if he should try throwing one at Kyogre himself. If Primal Kyogre broke out of the Dark Ball as well, then that would be three failed attempts for him, and Giovanni would freak out if his last throw didn't work out in his favor.

"One last chance. Here ya go, Kyogre!", shouted Archie as he pulled his arm back and got ready to throw the Dark Ball at the super-ancient Pokemon.

Just as he was about to throw, Maxie ran over and swatted the Dark Ball out of his hands and onto the ground, and he put his hands on the shoulder pads of Archie's Aqua Suit. Archie looked at Maxie in shock, as he had never seen his fellow RR Admin act so recklessly like this when he was usually so calm and collected.

"Archie! Groudon and Kyogre just had a massive power boost because of their Primal Reversion, so wasting Dark Balls on them now won't do anything!", shouted Maxie, who was trying to make some sense out of the situation to him.

"We have to make them fight each other first so that they both become weak from the conflict, and then that's where we sneak in and capture them. They're trying to go up to the surface now, so we should follow them up and watch them until we can safely catch them.", he finished.

"Yeah? And how do you suppose we do that?", asked Archie in confusion.

"Our suits are built to withstand the forces of Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, so we can actually ride them to the top, since it's our quickest way back to the surface. Are you ready?", asked Maxie.

"All right. I'll believe you on this one, ya scamp. Let's go!", exclaimed Archie.

They got on the backs of Groudon and Kyogre as the two super-ancient Pokemon began to walk further from each other and the chamber with all the Primal Energy they needed to wreak havoc on their opponents. Eventually, the two Rainbow Rocket Admins noticed that Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre were developing hostile expression as they walked near each other, and before Maxie and Archie could react, the two super-ancient Pokemon blew holes in the Cave of Origin and burst onto the surface, right in the middle of the Sootopolis City Harbor.

* * *

Steven was running out of breath, and he felt that he was going to collapse at any moment due to the insanely high temperatures down in the chamber. He slowly pushed himself up and crawled towards his Elite Four, who were also struggling to get up onto their feet.

"Wait… where did Maxie and Archie go… ", mumbled Drake as he shakily pointed to where Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre had been a few minutes earlier.

"They escaped with both Groudon and Kyogre in more powerful forms. We have to get out of here and stop them before they cause even more havoc.", explained Sidney slowly.

Steven heard the sound of rushing water, and he looked up in front of him to see two massive holes opened from the ceiling of the chamber, and he saw massive amounts of water fall through the hole and crash against the rocks that divided the magma and lava rivers. He then noticed that the rocks were beginning to crack from the water pressure being applied to them, and he took a deep breath, trying to prepare as best he could for the inevitable.

"We need to get out of here… let's move… ", mumbled Steven as he slowly ran out of the chamber, the Elite Four following suit behind him.

They raced out of the primal chamber and back into the previous room, where they saw their team of G-Men agents also struggling to get back on their feet, their commander helping the rest of his team up as well.

"Commander… we need to move now! Come on!", shouted Phoebe as she ran ahead of Steven quickly.

The G-Men team regained their senses and followed Phoebe, Steven, and the others as fast as they could out of the cave room and through the next cave passageway, just as the sound of water breaking through a layer of rocks met their ears from far behind them.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Sky Pillar**_

"Oh my Arceus… we reached the top. Finally!", exclaimed Kenny as he pulled himself up the last ladder of the tower.

"I'm so glad that's over, but I really don't want to climb all the way back down after what we all just did.", added Dawn as she sat down on the floor.

"Did we actually make it?", asked Wallace as his head poked out from the top of the ladder shaft and met the others' fortunate faces.

Wallace touched his feet down on the top floor and brushed himself off before practically jumping for joy. "Oh, thank Arceus. We did it!"

"Forget everything else that we've done in the past month. This was definitely the hardest out of all of them.", commented Drew as he finished climbing up the last ladder.

"Yeah… this even beats Celadon. I hadn't done this much exercise since basic training with the G-Men five years ago, and that was for six whole months back in 1997.", exclaimed Leaf as she reached the top.

"Speaking of years, isn't it supposed to be New Year's Eve today? I'm pretty sure today's date is December 31st after all.", asked Misty.

"Yeah, and it's already three o'clock today, so in seven hours it'll already be 2003. That's crazy… ", explained Gary as he got off the ladder.

"I hate to interrupt the meaningful conversation you all are having, but did you say you were in Celadon City? Were you the group who destroyed Rainbow Rocket's base there?", asked Wallace intriguingly.

"I led the G-Men team that raided the base, and I found all of them tied up in said base. I helped them out, and it was actually Rocket Executive Archer who blew up the base by stealing my detonator. We all escaped, but he and Rocket Elite 009 died in the explosion.", explained Leaf.

"Well, I'm glad you helped out in the fight, but we should focus back to summoning Rayquaza now. You all should stand back while I perform the needed procedure, since it could get pretty intense fast.", exclaimed Wallace as he stepped towards the center of the triangle-shaped floor.

"Rayquaza, hear my pleas! I am Wallace, son of Henry, a true Sootopolian by name and blood. All I ask is for you to answer our prayers and bring peace to our land of Hoenn where Groudon and Kyogre continue to clash. Please, hear me!", shouted Wallace.

Overhead, the group could see clouds beginning to form above them but nowhere else and they could hear the sky beginning to rumble for a few seconds before the sounds died down again. Wallace smiled at this new revelation, however, because things were finally working up here.

"If any of you has a Key Stone, then hold it up high! We need them to complete the summoning ceremony!', shouted Wallace as he turned around to face the group.

The former Hoenn Champion held up his Key Stone high above his head, and some of the others soon followed. Eventually, Gary, Brock, and Misty held their Key Stones up into the air, ready to take part in the summoning.

"Listen, if you're making us waste perfectly good Key Stones on this, then you owe the three of us new ones once this is all over!", exclaimed Gary as Wallace turned back around to face the Dragonhark Altar.

"Wait a minute! When did you three get Key Stones!", asked Ash in disbelief.

"I got mine from a research trip to Kalos, and I gave some extras to them as well!", answered Gary as he pointed to Brock and Misty, raising his voice over the rushing winds.

"I offer these Key Stones for you to aid us from this disaster… I summon thee! Rayquaza!", shouted Wallace as loudly as he possibly could.

Ash looked up at the sky as light began to shine off the Key Stones above into the sky as well, creating a spotlight on the clouds that was soon burst open by a green blur. The others now looked in front of them to see Rayquaza floating right below where the Key Stones had been shining up at and where it had burst through the clouds.

"Rayquaza! Take the energy of these Key Stones and save this region! Mega Evolve!", cried Wallace.

"What are you talking about! Did you just say that Rayquaza can Mega Evolve!", yelled Serena in confusion.

She was silenced as she watched the light shining off all four Key Stones was redirected towards Rayquaza, which completely enveloped Rayquaza in a spherical shape, surrounding it completely.

A few seconds later, the sphere of pure light broke apart, revealing a much different Rayquaza. Its yellow markings had drifted off its body but were still attached to the front like ribbons, and it had some new black markings on its face as well. Its four fins on its head had grown out like curved blades, and it had become longer in length and its body fins had grown in size as well.

"Arceus… it actually worked. I can't believe we did it.", murmured Wallace in an expression of disbelief and joy combined.

"What about our Key Stones? Are they going to work normally again?", asked Brock worriedly.

"Just give it a few weeks or so and they'll be fine. Rayquaza didn't absorb all the energy from our Key Stones, but it'll take a while before their energy is completely restored.", explained Wallace.

The former Hoenn Champion noticed Ash and a few others staring off the north ledge of the floor, obviously having noticed something happening north from here. He walked over to the north side of the altar and looked on at the scene down below in front of him. He could clearly see the volcano that was part of Sootopolis City from all the way up here, but he did see what looked like Groudon and Kyogre fighting inside the city's famous port, which scared him. He had to get down to his hometown fast, or else it and the whole region was doomed. He ran back to where Mega Rayquaza was, and surprisingly it bent down to allow him to ride on its back. He quickly jumped on, and the Sky High Pokemon got ready to fly down and end this conflict.

"I'll go down to Sootopolis and try to fix this problem. I recommend you all should find the quickest way out of the region as possible before you're discovered by anybody else.", exclaimed Wallace.

"Good idea. But please don't tell anyone about us. We want to remain a complete secret, and we're trusting you on this, Wallace.", explained Dawn.

"You're secret's safe with me. I won't tell a soul!", exclaimed Wallace eagerly.

He pointed in the direction of Sootopolis City, and Mega Rayquaza flew off towards the dormant volcano that housed the ancient city, leaving the teens behind. Once Wallace was gone, they decided to rest up for a few minutes before discussing their next plan.

* * *

"Now that that's out of the way, we need to find somewhere or something that can take us away from here as quickly as possible. Does anyone have some ideas as to where to head next?", asked Leaf.

"We could head over to Pacifidlog Town, which is just southwest of here. I know there's a pretty big port down there that could definitely take us to another region.", explained May.

"There's also a larger harbor area in Sootopolis City where we could go to, but Groudon and Kyogre are fighting there, and if Wallace was correct, then there's a bunch of people that could recognize us instantly.", added Ash concerningly.

"Mossdeep City is too far north from here… it'll take us at least a few hours to reach there, and that would just be wasting time if we can catch a ship in Pacifidlog Town, which is just over thirty minutes away.", exclaimed Drew.

"So we're heading to Pacifidlog Town, then. We should make basic preparations here for a few minutes before heading off.", instructed Leaf.

The others nodded in understanding, and got to work organizing their bags and getting ready for the trip as a whole. Hoenn had been a stressful experience for them in the past few weeks, having to deal with Maxie, Archie, and multiple encounters with Legendary Pokemon again. All the group could hope for in the coming days and weeks was that the action would calm down a bit so they could relax until this whole situation was finally over. Alas, they always had to expect the unexpected, especially when Ash Ketchum was leading them into their next steps in hiding.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Sootopolis City**_

Steven stood up and walked away from the makeshift medical tent with Metagross's Pokeball in his hands, ready to be thrown.

He had just finished being checked out by some G-Men medical agents, and he was now ready to take on Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre with most of the region's G-Men squads beside him. The rest of his Elite Four were busy being checked by the medical agents for any serious injuries from their time in the Cave of Origin, but Steven was cleared to rejoin the battle that had already begun. He could see G-Men agents everywhere around the two super-ancient Pokemon, from commanding their Pokemon to attacking Rainbow Rocket Grunts in hand-to-hand combat.

The whole gang was actually here. Maxie and Archie had made their way up to the surface on Groudon and Kyogre's backs, where they supposedly called all their Grunts from their massive submarine docked in Sootopolis Harbor. Luckily, Steven's G-Men agents from across Hoenn had already arrived to counter the amount of Grunts fighting around both legendary Pokemon.

"Metagross, come on out and use Psychic!", exclaimed Steven as he threw his Pokeball in the air.

The Ultra Ball opened up a second after he threw it, revealing Steven's trusty Shiny Metagross as it landed on the ground determinedly. It searched for a target while Steven talked to another G-Men agent, its eyes finally laying on a group of Grunts that were slowly approaching. Metagross's eyes glowed a bluish-pink color as it sent a strong wave of psychic energy towards the cluster of Grunts, which it lifted up into the air and threw them into the water violently with a huge splash.

Steven ran back to his Pokemon, and smiled after noticing the amount of Grunts stuck in the water at that very moment.

"Great job, Metagross. You keep doing that to more Grunts while I talk to some more agents.", explained Steven as he ran off towards another platoon commander nearby.

"Commander Smith! How's your team faring here? Do you need any help?", asked Steven as he ran over to a platoon commander from Dewford County.

"I'm all right, but the same should be asked for you. I heard about what happened down there. I'm worried about John and his team since they all got crushed by Maxie and Archie, but you should rest before heading out like this.", exclaimed the commander.

"That's exactly why I'm letting Metagross handle most of the work for me. It's doing a great job so far taking out Grunts from long-range distances using Psychic.", explained Steven as he pointed to the Iron Leg Pokemon.

"That's good. Wouldn't want my boss to die on the job, would I?", asked Commander Smith jokingly.

"Right back at ya. I better go check on my Elite Four, since they're still being looked at in the medical tent.", Steven exclaimed as he pointed back to the white tent behind him.

He ran back all the way to the medical tent on the edge of the western part of the city, noticing his Metagross picking up even more Rocket Grunts and throwing them into the water with its Psychic attack.

"Steven! How's it going back there?", asked Drake as Steven helped him up to his feet, with him seemingly being cleared from medical examinations.

"Phoebe, Glacia, and Sidney are all okay, but they need to rest along with Drake until they'll be at one-hundred percent recovered. As for Commander Simmons and his squad… you should just take a look for yourself.", explained the head doctor.

He pointed towards the other end of the fairly large medical tent, where at least fifty beds with people on them were laid out next to each other with doctors looking at many of them. Steven slowly walked over to that side of the tent, where he noticed Commander Simmons lying on his bed.

"Hey, John. How's it going lately?", asked Steven quietly as he approached the platoon commander's medical bed.

"Not so well. Doctor said that I have a few broken ribs, and I got off pretty easy. Some of my agents got damaged vertebrae, and some might have trouble walking or just getting onto their feet again.", exclaimed the commander.

"Well, that's just the part of risking your life to protect the region and the people living in it, I suppose. I'm glad that you and most of your team made it out of the cave alive, knowing how much you had to risk to help Hoenn as a whole.", explained Steven.

"Yeah… I'll get back to normal soon, and you can expect me to lead a platoon again as soon as I get back to Ever Grande City.", exclaimed the commander encouragingly.

"Steven! It's getting worse out there!", shouted Phoebe from across the medical tent, desperate to grab his attention.

"I'll check it out right now!", shouted Steven as he turned his head around to face Phoebe.

Steven checked his watch instinctively and then turned back to the platoon commander. "I've got to go now. Get better soon!"

The Hoenn Champion raced out of the medical tent, only to feel rain pelting him from all sides. This was the strongest rainstorm he had ever been in, and he could see the clouds closing in on the city, with thunder and lighting in tow. A few seconds later, he watched the sky as the clouds dissipated quickly to reveal the harshest sunlight he had ever felt as well, and he could feel the temperature going up with every second he stood out in the sun.

"What the hell is going on with the weather!", shouted Steven as he yelled at the nearest G-Men agents he could find as he ran back into the fight.

"It's Groudon and Kyogre's abilities! They're causing rainstorms and heat waves every five seconds!", shouted Commander Smith as he turned around to face Steven.

"If that's true, then it's not safe for ou out here. Metagross, return!", the Hoenn Champion shouted as he pulled out Metagross's Pokeball and recalled the Iron Leg Pokemon.

"Where even are Maxie and Archie anyways? I haven't seen them since we left the Cave of Origin!", exclaimed Steven in confusion.

"They're on the eastern side of the city, just watching these weird-looking forms of Groudon and Kyogre fight against each other. They aren't even trying to catch them or anything!", exclaimed the squad commander.

"Do you have any idea why-look out!", shouted Steven as he ran as he pushed Commander Smith out of the way as he tried to avoid the massive Hydro Pump attack from Primal Kyogre.

"If this keeps up, then the whole city is done for! We have to do something, and fast!", shouted Commander Smith as he jumped to avoid a Stone Edge attack that broke part of the city's western pier.

The hot sun then faded away as the clouds came in again, and the rain started to pour in again from the now-dark sky. Steven watched as Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre kept on fighting in the center of the harbor, with no signs of ever stopping. Suddenly, the sky cleared up, but the sunlight didn't feel as harsh as it was when the last few weather cycles had changed. Steven looked up at the sky to see a bridge of sunlight break through the stormy grey clouds, and he watched as a green blur raced down through the clouds to face Groudon and Kyogre. Steven continued to look at the sky as he saw a weird-looking form of Rayquaza drop down from the clouds and stop in front of Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, and his jaw dropped once he noticed who was riding the legendary Pokemon.

Wallace was situated on top of this form of Rayquaza, and he looked like he was the king of the world on top of the Sky High Pokemon. Steven rolled his eyes in laughter, as he always had a flair for dramatic entrances.

"People of Sootopolis! I, Wallace, am here to save you from the terrors you see in front of you! This battle will end in peace and prosperity for all of Hoenn!", shouted Wallace on top of Rayquaza's back.

Rayquaza flew down to let Wallace jump off its back onto the pier, and he walked over to where Steven was staring at the Legendary Pokemon in awe. The Hoenn Champion's attention soon diverted back to Wallace, who was smirking at the sight of immense power.

"Great job, Wallace! You actually summoned Rayquaza, but why does it look so different than what the depictions from three years ago show.", asked Steven in confusion.

"This is actually Rayquaza's Mega Evolved form. It doesn't even need a Mega Stone, but it needs the strength of multiple Key Stones to fully Mega Evolve and stop Groudon and Kyogre in whatever state they're in now.", answered Wallace.

"Groudon and Kyogre supposedly absorbed enough primal energy underneath the Cave of Origin to revert to their Primal forms, according to Maxie and Archie.", explained Steven.

"Interesting… but I need to stop this right now, and you're going to help me out. Mega Rayquaza, use Dragon Ascent and end this now!", shouted Wallace as he pointed towards Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon.

Mega Rayquaza flew up deep into the sky above, and a few seconds later came rushing back down in between where Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre were fighting. The Sky High Pokemon then rose up from the water without a scratch on its emerald green body, and the two super-ancient Pokemon looked on in awe. It gave off a loud roar that sent shivers down the spines of all the G-Men agents, RR Grunts, and commanders that listened to the cry of dominance. Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre seemed to calm down and stare at Mega Rayquaza, and they slowly backed away from each other. The two super-ancient Pokemon continued to back away from each other and slowly retreated back into the ocean and underground while Steven, Wallace, and the others looked on at the amazing sight.

"Thank you, Rayquaza! You've done this region another great favor, and we are extremely thankful!", shouted Wallace at the Sky High Pokemon.

Mega Rayquaza gave off another huge roar as it flew back up into the ozone layer, presumably to not be disturbed by anyone else for a few thousand years again. Steven and Wallace stared at the sight in awe, stunned as to how quickly the conflict had ended.

"Now that this is over, I'm going to find Maxie and Archie and arrest them right now. See you in a few minutes!", exclaimed Steven as he ran away from Wallace to the eastern side of the city.

"Steven, don't waste your time. It seems that Maxie and Archie have both escaped from Sootopolis City and we can't find them anywhere. I'm sorry for disappointing you after all this has happened.", exclaimed Commander Smith.

"Well, that's unfortunate. At least we saved the whole region from utter destruction!", commented Wallace as he cracked a smile.

"I'm going back to the medical tent to see the others, and in a few hours I'll call Lance. I need to relax after what happened today. Want to join me?", asked Steven exhaustingly.

"Boy, do I ever. I need a break after climbing up so many ladders. You don't want to hear what I dealt with in the past few hours.", exclaimed Wallace, who immediately fell silent.

Steven looked on in suspicion as Wallace walked ahead towards the medical tent. Wallace was acting a little bit suspicious, but he just shrugged it off and followed him anyway. He needed to rest for the remainder of the day, and he would just question him about it in the coming days ahead.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Pacifidlog Town**_

"Is everyone's Pokemon healed?", asked Leaf as she fidgeted with her hands, watching most of the others come back from the Pokemon Center counter.

The group had flown as fast as their Pokemon could from the Sky Pillar down to Pacifidlog Town, where they went straight to the Pokemon Center while Ash and Brock went down to the port to buy tickets to go on a ship with the remaining money they had from their previous travels and winnings.

"Yeah, I think so. We're pretty much done and I think we can head out now.", answered Gary as he walked over to the rest of the group.

Leaf noticed everyone except for Ash and Brock around her as the Pokemon Center counter remained empty, and she nodded her head in understanding.

"All right. Let's head on over to the harbor to meet Ash and Brock.", exclaimed Leaf, making sure to keep quiet when reciting Ash and Brock's names so people wouldn't overhear them.

They rushed out of the Pokemon Center together, ignoring the confused and suspicious stares that came from the other people inside the Pokemon Center and in the surrounding streets that led to the harbor. They spotted Ash and Brock on the far end of the harbor talking to the man behind the ticket kiosk, and so they ran up to them as fast as they could, trying to reach them before they acted even more suspicious. The group stopped once they reached the kiosk that Ash and Brock were standing in front, surprising the ticket seller as he jumped back in shock while Ash and Brock greeted their friends.

"So, uh, you wanted nineteen tickets to Sinnoh, and I assume this is the rest of your party?", asked the ticket seller, staring down at the seventeen other people that had just arrived.

He watched as the group of people began to discuss amongst themselves for a few seconds in some kind of group huddle, and once they re-emerged they luckily confirmed that they would be buying the tickets.

"All right. Each ticket will cost you 150 Pokedollars, and if you times that by nineteen you get 2850 Pokedollars in total.", explained the ticket seller as he pointed towards the boat that would taking them to Sinnoh only if they paid up.

"Here you go, sir. 2850 Pokedollars exactly.", exclaimed a girl as she handed him a wad of bills straight from her wallet.

The ticket seller counted the bills to find exactly 2850 Pokedollars in his hands, and he printed out nineteen tickets to give to the group in front of him. They gladly accepted each ticket he handed out to him, and he watched them leave towards the boat, more happy customers that were going to enjoy their trip to Sinnoh.

"Let's just head onto the boat now. We can't risk being spotted by people here.", exclaimed May as she walked towards boat, motioning the others to follow her.

"I can't believe how easy it is to travel between regions, but it's really helping us now. Let's just get on the boat and relax until we arrive in Sinnoh.", added Leaf as she stepped onto the boat ramp.

The others soon followed her onto the boat, ready to leave Hoenn behind and to see what was going to happen next in the Sinnoh region. They could have more adventures and encounters like what had happened in Kanto and Hoenn, but they were mostly hoping for a smoother experience with no real danger of being captured or discovered by anybody else.

Either way, they would have to wait and see what was going to happen next, and everyone in the group seemed to be totally okay with that.

* * *

That's the end of another chapter, and this was definitely one of the longest ones to create and edit. It took me forever to finalize all the scenes and edit them to the best of my ability, and I'm also glad that this story continues to be supported week after week. It really motivates me to continue because I know you really want to read the story and see how it turns out.

As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	20. XIX - The Truth

**Here's chapter 20, everybody! And not a moment too soon, considering September is rolling around so soon and all. This is the fourth chapter uploaded during this month of August, and I'm really proud that this story that started out as another idea in my head is continuing to grow stronger and gain support each day.  
**

 **We have one more review response, and then onto this next chapter.**

 **Kishinaract: Thanks for another positive review! I really appreciate your support week after week, and I couldn't thank you enough for believing in me and this story.**

* * *

 **The Eighteen**

Chapter XIX

The Truth

* * *

 **December** _ **31, 2002. Interregional Waters.**_

"There's a New Year's celebration down in the main hall. Does anyone else want to stop by and hang out there with us?", asked Gary as he walked back to the others with Leaf.

"Sure! We'll be there in a few minutes. How does that sound?", asked Ash as he stood up from the chair he was sitting on.

"Good. See you then!", exclaimed Gary as he turned around and walked back to the main hall of the ship.

The group was sitting on one of the ship's main decks, with some sitting on chairs and others standing on the edge of the railing, looking out at the ocean in front of them. The sun was setting at that very moment, allowing them to enjoy a beautiful orange sky as the sun slowly disappeared on the horizon.

"I'm just glad that we can enjoy the last few hours of this year relaxing on this ship. It's a nice change of pace for how much stuff has happened in this month alone and the year as a whole.", commented Misty.

"Totally. I just want to relax tonight with all of you without having to worry about stopping another world-ending threat or something like that.", added Brock.

"Well, it was pretty nice to get to know all of you, despite the weird circumstances at the time. It was an experience, that's for sure.", exclaimed Kenny as he sat down in another chair.

"Don't act like it's over, Kenny. We're still a long way away before this whole thing blows over and we're clear to maybe return to our normal lives again.", explained Dawn.

"I know, but what are we gonna do even if Rainbow Rocket is defeated? We can't just walk back into our normal lives without anything happening to us. The press will probably be all over us if that happens!", asked Kenny.

"That's the problem. We can't really go back to our normal lives even if this blows over, since we'll always be known for this incident even if we try and go back to battling or Contests.", explained May.

"I guess this is the event that we'll all be known by for the rest of our lives, no matter what other accomplishments we make during that time, even if we're able to return to society after this is all over in the first place.", added Drew.

"Arceus, I sure hope not. I don't want to be remembered as the person who everyone thought was dead for the rest of my life, even if I end up winning Contests and Grand Festivals.", explained Dawn.

"Either way, we're going to have to live with whatever this whole situation throws at us even when the conflict is over, and that's just going to be how it is from now on.", commented Clemont.

Now that that's settled, why don't we head over to find Gary and Leaf down in the main hall? We can relax and finally enjoy a New Year's Eve here without any evil mastermind trying to destroy us or the region we're in.", exclaimed Trip.

"That sounds really good right now. We should all head over so they won't be waiting for much longer.", commented Ash as he stood up from the chair he was sitting in.

"Nah, we should keep them waiting. They're bound to get together at some point on this trip; I can almost sense it.", snarked Brock jokingly.

"I think you've had enough matchmaking for this month, Brock. You might wanna rest a little; take a day off or something.", exclaimed Misty as she walked over to him.

"What? I have a knack for these kinds of things. I've already figured it out with Ash and Misty, and not to mention May and Drew!", chuckled Brock as he put a hand to his face in laughter.

"I have to give you some credit there, Brock, but that's besides the point. We should all be together and have fun for just one night!", reiterated Zoey.

"Let's just head out then. Who's coming with me?", asked Ash.

He had stood up from the chair he was sitting in and walked over to the door that led back inside the main hall of the ship, having turned back around to face his friends and to hear what they wanted to do.

"I don't see why not.", exclaimed Misty as she stood up and walked over to Ash and held his hand.

The two walked over towards one of the ship's doors, and everybody else soon followed them inside the main hall, ready to relax and hang out with Gary and Leaf and enjoying a nice New Year's Eve party together.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Unknown Location.**_

"Maxie? The boss is requesting your presence. He's waiting for you in his office.", exclaimed a Grunt as she walked into Maxie's office.

The Rainbow Rocket Admin raised an eyebrow in surprise as he stood up silently and took one last look at his office before leaving it, making sure to lock the door after he and the Grunt had left. He had just gotten back to headquarters around an hour ago, and he was about to get back into his daily work routine if this request hadn't interrupted his already eventful day.

Maxie walked out of his office and made his way towards the elevators, where he discovered Archie already standing next to one that was heading down to their floor. He walked over to his fellow RR Admin, standing in front of the elevator as Grunts walked past them on their daily tasks.

"Did Giovanni call you to his office as well?", asked Maxie, his head finally looking up from the ground.

"Yeah, but I don't know what for. The capsules were dropped off when we got here, so he can't possibly be mad that we didn't have any light to collect in the first place.", explained Archie.

The elevator door opened and the two Admins walked inside it, pressing the button for the highest floor where Giovanni's main office was located. They waited inside the elevator for a few minutes as Grunts came in and out to go to various floors throughout the base. Eventually, they found themselves on Giovanni's office floor as the elevator opened on the top floor of all of headquarters, and they both walked out as the doors closed behind them, the elevator going back down to lower floors.

"What do ya think he's gonna say to us? I'm kinda scared, to be frank… ", muttered Archie worriedly.

"We can't predict anything right now, so we'll just have to wait and see what he says when he does it.", explained Maxie as he stopped outside a set of double doors across the hall from the elevator.

Archie instantly recognized the double doors as Giovanni's main office, where he worked as the leader of Rainbow Rocket from behind the scenes and commanded him and Maxie to do his bidding along with his four Executives from the original Team Rocket. Maxie walked next to him and slowly pushed open the double doors, allowing him and Archie to walk inside Giovanni's office and towards the desk where he was sitting at, with him looking out onto the basement levels of research and development.

The Rainbow Rocket Boss turned around in his chair to face Maxie and Archie, who were still standing in front of him silently, waiting for any response by him to get the conversation started.

"Maxie, Archie, I'm glad you're here. Both of your efforts in Hoenn were extremely successful for our plans, with more and more light energy being converted into a solid, useable form as we speak.", exclaimed Giovanni.

"I did see how you both failed to capture Groudon and Kyogre for me, but you did accomplish gathering light energy from their resting places to fulfill one portion of our needs. Also, I'm surprised that you managed to accomplish a lot more with your own teams, because I was afraid that I would have to waste more resources on aiding you two while in Hoenn.", he finished.

Maxie nodded silently while Archie hesitated for a second before doing the same, desperately trying to please his new boss.

"I might have you return back to Hoenn for more missions in the future, but for now you can relax and stay here at headquarters for a while, just to cool off. I'll be letting my Executives and my other Admins go on missions for the time being after today.", explained Giovanni.

"Thank you, sir. We won't possibly fail you again.", exclaimed Maxie confidently.

"Very well. You two are dismissed."

Maxie and Archie mentally sighed in relief as they nodded and turned back around and leave Giovanni's office, with them feeling like a humongous weight had been lifted off both of their shoulders.

"Man… who do ya think those other Admins are? We know the Executives, but I have no clue as to who the other ones are… ", asked Archie in confusion.

Maxie put his hand to his face in confusion. "Well, we have talked with them before in our council meetings with Giovanni, and at least a few of them helped free us from that wretched holding center Lance had placed us in three years earlier."

"However, Giovanni just viewed them as his colleagues when he bailed us out. We still didn't get to tell who they were at all.", added Maxie.

"That's true… but I guess we'll just have to see who they are. We can relax for the next few weeks in peace, just doin' our desk jobs for now.", exclaimed Archie.

"That's one thing I'm really looking forward to. I can't wait to be back here for a while, just working the way I do best, and that's at a computer.", commented Maxie as he walked into the open elevator, Archie right on his heels.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Sinnoh Region - Unknown Location**_

A series of beeps came out of the digital clock's speakers, startling the man as he turned around to see the time on the clock, registering it as eight-o'clock in the evening. It was time for his third meditation period of the day, and so he sat down on the carpeted floor and closed his eyes. He continued to meditate, choosing to empty his mind and to concentrate on the living energy around him for what seemed like a few minutes, until his mind was slammed by what he predicted as a cluster of strong energy sources that were heading closer at first glance. He concentrated on those presences he felt in his mind, and to his surprise, they were the same ones he had felt when meditating weeks earlier. His eyes almost shot open in surprise at that moment, and it took all of his remaining strength to not stop concentrating on what he was supposed to when meditating.

His concentration and focus failed to keep him from snapping out of his meditation sequence, with his heart pounding as he rushed through his house, desperately searching for something.

"Crap… they're getting closer… ", the man murmured under his breath as he ran over to his bookshelf and grabbed a stack of books and binders from the shelf.

He ran out the front door of his house and turned to his backyard, where he opened a storage box and placed the stack he was carrying all the way at the bottom of the box. He looked up at the sky and noticed that the clouds were starting to gather along his area in West Sinnoh, and he frowned as he looked at the dark sky. He noticed another familiar presence located right behind him, and so he turned around and saw his Pokemon standing on a rock behind him. The man smiled slightly and walked over to his Pokemon on the rocks, and the two started to walk further away from their house. The Pokemon gave off a few grunts in a seemingly concerned and worried manner, and the man nodded his head. "I've taken all precautions I need to. If fate decides to mess with me today, I better be prepared for the worst."

"How about we can go up to our cave den that looks over the whole surrounding area. I brought my radio from here so we can also listen to the New Year's celebrations while we're there. How does that sound?", he asked.

The Pokemon seemed to respond happily to his request, and the man smiled as he climbed over some rocky ledges, his Pokemon right behind him. They made their way up the rocky ledges and towards the highest place near where they lived, and they both sighed in relief when they saw a familiar cave entrance that they had spent many hours in. The man grabbed a lighter and placed the flame on the campfire that already had leftover firewood from the last time they had used it, and with the help of his Pokemon, the fire soon came to life as the man set up his portable radio and turned it on.

He sighed to himself as he leaned against the wall of the cave next to his Pokemon, with the portable radio blasting music and news reports into his ears. He hoped that this New Year's would actually be nice and not be terrifying and/or tragic, but he would just have to see what was going to happen next in the next few hours.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Interregional Waters.**_

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up!", exclaimed Gary as he saw the others walk towards him and Leaf.

"Glad we could make it in time. This place looks fantastic!", chirped Serena, gushing at the fancy decor of the room.

"What were we doing out there? This place is so much better!", exclaimed Misty as she went straight for the buffet, dragging Ash along with her.

Eventually, everyone managed to sit down and eat some food from the massive dinner buffet, and they managed to all have nice, long conversations with each other for the first time since they had basically entered Hoenn.

"Hey, guys? You should all come check this out… ", exclaimed Leaf as she held up her X-Transceiver to the group.

Leaf flipped on the projector screen on her X-Transceiver and opened her news app, which also opened the story she wanted the rest of the group to see. It was an article from the Pewter Times dated from almost two weeks ago, and the others leaned in to read what the article had to say.

 **The Pewter Times - December 20, 2002 - Volume CCLVII**

 **Mysterious "Hooded Heroes" Sighted Again in Hoenn - What is Their Goal?**

"The article goes on to say that a group of what looked like teenagers in masking disguises were sighted around northwest Hoenn, and they were also sighted near Vermillion City at the same time that Rainbow Rocket stormed the harbor.", explained Leaf.

"Does it have any images… of us?", asked Barry worriedly, and the others seemed to match his expression as well.

"Well, most of the images are blurred out, likely due to the cover-up campaign I set up when we were first spotted in Vermillion City. Nobody has said anything that figured out who we actually are right now, and that's a very good thing for our survival out here.", Leaf finished.

"The problem is, people know that we exist although they don't know who exactly we are, but people just knowing that a group of teenagers that sound extremely familiar to the people who died a few weeks earlier seems like a bad thing for our chances of living out here.", added Brock grimly.

"That's true… but we have to stay low now. We can't risk being on the news again, even if our faces are blurred in the pictures.", reiterated Leaf as she closed the article.

The others seemed to understand as she turned off her X-Transceiver, and they went back to their nearby seats, back to eating their food with a tense expression on their faces as they looked on grimly. Suddenly, the group felt the boat move sideways, and some people fell out of their chairs as the waves continued to shake the boat in the water. The group was startled as they continued to be pushed around by the waves be knocked down to the floor.

"What the hell is going on! Is there a hurricane or something out there!", cried Trip as he got up from the floor which he had fallen onto.

" _Attention all passengers. We are currently traveling through a tough sea storm that will cause some rough waves. Please stay calm, and we'll take further evacuation measures if this situation gets worse."_ , exclaimed the ship's PA system.

"We need to go outside! If they're loading people onto lifeboats we need to be closer in line as we can so we can get out quicker!", shouted Ash as he got up from the floor and started to run outside.

The others heard Ash and followed his lead, getting up from the floor or the chairs they were holding on to when the boat started to be pushed around by the waves, and they all started to run out of the main hall towards the lifeboat stations.

"We need to keep going! Try to ignore the waves!", cried Gary as he ran out of the main hall and onto the deck.

He looked around frantically for any signs of the lifeboat stations, until he saw people crowding around a set of lifeboats on the other end of the ship. Gary ran as fast as he could towards that side of the boat, desperate to save a few seats on a lifeboat for the rest of the group.

"Gary! Wait up!", exclaimed Ash from behind him as he continued to run on the deck towards the lifeboat station.

Gary tried to make the final few steps towards the lifeboats, until another gigantic wave slammed into the other side of the ship, sending the Pokemon Researcher flying sideways onto the ground. He barely managed to pull himself up off the floor before he would have fallen into the water, though.

"Gary, we're right behind you! Let's go!", shouted Leaf's voice as Gary started to run again, knowing now that his friends were still here for him despite the ship basically sinking.

Gary was about to make it to the lifeboat area before the largest wave so far crushed the opposite side of the ship, sending him over the railing on the edge and into the water below, along with many other passengers on the ship at that very moment.

He felt the shockwave of the cold water course through his bones, but he nevertheless stayed afloat, noticing people from the group like Ash, Leaf, and Drew in the water behind him as well. He saw what looked to be an island directly in front of him, which was maybe where the ship could have been heading, and he tried to swim as hard as he could towards that island despite the rough waves hitting him on every turn.

"Come on… gotta… get there…!", mumbled Gary, his muscles clenching in determination as he continued to swim.

Unfortunately, the rough waves were too much for the Pokemon Researcher, as he eventually went under the water after trying to swim over a tall wave as he tried to get to the island in the distance. His last thoughts before he went unconscious was wondering what, or who, could be on that island to potentially rescue him and everybody else from the storm.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Sinnoh Region - Unknown Location**_

"Ash? Ash, wake up! We need you up here!"

Ash's eyes slowly opened up as he heard Dawn's voice yelling in his ears, and he slowly lifted his head and noticed Dawn and Barry standing in front of him and looking down at his face. He slowly lifted himself up onto his feet, noticing the rocky landscape around him as Dawn and Barry supported him as he got himself settled back onto his feet and figure out where they had ended up.

"Oh, thank Arceus. You were out for a while, even after we got up.", exclaimed Dawn as she sat down on a nearby rock.

Ash and Barry prompted to do the same as they sat down next to her to get some rest and recuperate after the whole incident with the ship, and to make sure they could find the others and reunite together.

"So, what happened to the boat? The last thing I remember is it being pushed around by waves, and I fell off trying to catch up to Gary. What even is this place?", asked Ash with a concerned expression.

Dawn thought to herself. "Well, the boat did sink, and I got into a lifeboat with Barry, Paul and a few of the others. We tried to paddle as best as we could, but the waves got us too and we went under."

"I was trying to tell Cilan to paddle faster, but he just couldn't keep up with my intense oar skills. I am so fining him when I see him again!", shouted Barry in annoyance.

"Barry, we need to concentrate now on where we should go next. I say we first figure out where we are, and then we try and find everybody else. How does that sound?", asked Dawn.

"That's great. If everyone else is here as well, then that'll make our jobs much easier even after we find out where we are in the first place.", added Ash enthusiastically.

He stood up from the rock with a determined expression on his face, and Dawn and Barry soon followed with the same kind of intensity that always seemed to be present on Ash's face whenever a task was at hand that required him or his Pokemon to help out.

"All right. Where should we start first?", asked Barry as he kicked some pebbles along the ground impatiently while Ash and Dawn walked behind him, discussing their next course of action.

"Well, were we any close to Sinnoh when the boat began to sink? And how long were we out unconscious for?", asked Ash in confusion.

Dawn considered what had happened earlier, and then gave a response back. "We were supposed to arrive in Canalave City by around eleven o'clock at night, an hour before the ball drop in Jubilife City, but the last time I checked the clock on the ship it was around eight-thirty, and right now it's ten-thirty at night."

"So we were basically out for two hours… we're lucky we washed up here, or else we would be lost at sea for probably a long amount of time, or we could have drowned thanks to the rough waters.", added Ash.

Dawn nodded her head. "Yeah, and thank Arceus that we did. I hope everyone else managed to end up somewhere safe and not be lost at sea, or even be still inside the ship by now. That's just terrible even thinking about it!"

"Well, I was trapped in a sinking ship once with Misty, Brock, and Team Rocket, but I'm pretty sure we already told you all about that. We managed to get out by my Charmander blowing a hole in the ship's hull with Flamethrower and using our Water-type Pokemon to get ourselves out.", added Ash.

"Okay, I've had enough! Can we just keep walking and not talk about boats or shipwrecks? I just want to find out where we are, and I'm fining the next person one million dollars who doesn't talk about that subject only!", shouted Barry.

"Alright! We get it, Barry. We won't talk about that anymore.", reassured Dawn, her hands in front of her in an instinctive defensive motion as Barry was yelling in her face.

"Hey, check it out! There's a house over there!", exclaimed Ash as he pointed in front of him.

Dawn and Barry looked on to see a house in the distance, right in front of where Ash was pointing to, and they noticed a rocky cliff start to form behind the house, and some faint stairs were present leading onto the rocky cliffs.

"Maybe we should check it out. It wouldn't hurt to try, and we might even find somebody else who lives here and could help us find the others.", exclaimed Dawn.

"Sure, why not. Last one there is getting fined so badly!", shouted Barry.

He ran ahead of Dawn and Ash towards the house, with them trying their hardest to catch up to the speedy Pokemon Trainer as they approached the small house by the rocks. Maybe whoever lived there could help them out, find the others, and eventually get out of this place.

* * *

"Oh… my head… ", muttered Misty as she opened her eyes to see the gray-colored and rocky ground she was lying on.

She slowly pushed herself up onto her knees as she caught her breath, trying to get back up to speed as she managed to sit herself down on the rocky ground. She did some stretching to try and fix the tiredness in her joints, and after that was done, she finally noticed the other person sitting on a rock next to her.

"Oh… hey, Serena. Glad to see you're all right.", muttered Misty as she stood up on her feet.

Serena stood up from the rock and glanced at Misty, frowning as she watched her stand up and brush herself off. Misty glanced back at the Pokemon Performer, trying to stay positive as she walked back up to her.

"You're lucky I'm not that cruel, or else I would have left you for dead in the water. That still doesn't change anything, though.", commented Serena.

"Look, I'm still sorry about the whole thing with Ash, but could we leave it for another time? We need to find everybody else and make sure we get out of wherever this place is.", reasoned Misty.

"I know we should, but you already know how I feel about all of this. Let's just go together until we find the others.", added Serena as she started to walk ahead.

Misty ran up to her, trying to catch up, and the two started to walk together silently as they made their way through the rocky landscape of wherever they had ended up after the boat sank in the storm.

"It's nice that the storm passed off quickly, although it did sink the ship… maybe it's headed south instead of going on course to Sinnoh.", exclaimed Misty, trying to start some small talk.

"Well, it sure helped us out… our ride is now at the bottom of the sea, we're separated from everyone else, and we still have no idea where we are or where this place is!", Serena shouted angrily.

"Listen, Serena. I know you don't like me, but we have to work together. We at least have to try and find some of the others, and after that you can go back to ignoring e forever.", reiterated Misty.

Serena thought to herself in silence for a moment, think about what she could do next with this situation set it stone for the time being. Would she rather leave Misty alone and try to find the others by herself, or work together so that they could find everybody else faster?

"All right, let's do this together.", exclaimed Serena.

Misty breathed out a sigh of relief. Maybe Serena didn't completely hate her guts after what happened with Ash, and she could try and rebuild their friendship over the course of the next few days if they even got out of here in the first place.

"Now that that's settled, where should we go next?", asked Misty as she observed a slight fork in the road.

"I say we should go to the right. It looks a lot safer than the left path.", exclaimed Serena as she pointed to the path leaning right.

Misty nodded in understanding. "I'm not gonna stop you, you know. Let's head right!"

They started to walk on the right path for a few minutes, talking to each other as the landscape became more rocky and inland as the shore got further away from them. They observed the rock-filled landscape as the terrain became more rough to travel on, which concerned them since some of the others might have ended up in this rough and rocky area.

"Hey, Serena! I think I see someone over there!", exclaimed Misty as she pointed in front of her.

The Pokemon Performer's eyes widened at Misty's explanation. She could have found the rest of the group, or another person that could hopefully help them to find everybody else and get off this place.

"Are you sure? Where did you see them?", she asked hopefully.

"They seem to be over there, but we should go closer to check it out.", Misty finished as she started to walk closer towards the people in the distance.

Serena followed the Cerulean Gym Leader as they made their way around the rocks, approaching the group of people in front of them ever so slightly until they could make out their faces in front of them. Misty's eyes widened once she walked close enough to the people so that she could make out who they were, and she let out a sigh of relief as she recognized the people standing in front of her. Brock, Gary, and Drew were standing next to each other, presumably talking amongst each other for a few minutes as Misty walked closer to them. She took a few more steps to get even closer, and eventually she walked up to them with Serena right behind her.

"Misty! Serena! Thank Arceus you're both here.", shouted Brock as he ran over to both of them.

"Right back at ya, Brock. Are you guys all right?", asked Misty concerningly.

"Yeah, we're all right. Last thing I remember was grabbing onto a lifeboat, but i got hurled overboard since the ship got pushed really hard by the waves. Next thing I know, I'm here with Brock and Drew here waiting for me to get up.", explained Gary.

"That's interesting, but do you think the others washed up here as well? We have to find them before they could get caught up in some trouble.", added Serena.

"Either way, we should move out now. It's better if we find May and the others now instead of later on.", exclaimed Drew.

He started to walk ahead of the small group, and the others ran and caught up to him a few seconds later, recognizing the determination in his eyes as they walked away from where they washed up on and more inland to find the others.

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Hoenn Region - Sootopolis City**_

Steven pulled his PokeNav Plus out of his pocket and opened it up, automatically turning it on as he scrolled through his contacts until he landed on Lance's phone number. He clicked on Lance's icon, which dialed the number and left Steven waiting for him to pick up. Thanks to the Devon Corporation's collaborative effort with the Silph Company based in Kanto and Johto, all Pokegear phone numbers could be used as well in a PokeNav or a PokeNav Plus produced by Devon, which made it much more convenient to call people like Lance who lived in Kanto and Johto.

"Steven? Did something happen down in Hoenn?", asked Lance sternly after the sixth ring.

"Yeah… we managed to stop Maxie and Archie from using Groudon and Kyogre to destroy the region, but they escaped our clutches when we were dealing with the two super-ancient Pokemon fighting in the city harbor.", Steven explained.

"Well, at least you stopped a world-ending event like that from happening, and we can always deal with Maxie and Archie later on. Is Rainbow Rocket conducting more activity in the region now after Maxie and Archie retreated?", asked Lance concerningly.

"Well, most of my agents were here in the battle in the city harbor, and I haven't heard anything from select groups operating in the region that weren't called into the city to fight. I would assume that Maxie and Archie would recall their forces as well if they were forced to retreat as well, so I'm not worrying about it.", exclaimed Steven.

Steven heard silence on the other end of the call, and he waited until Lance started to speak again. "What about Wallace and your Elite Four? Are they all right?"

"Sidney, Glacia, and Phoebe are being treated for mild burns and heat symptoms thanks to the high temperatures in the Cave of Origin here, but Drake seems to be all right, and the other three are going to be okay as well.", explained Steven.

"Wallace was assigned by me to go to Sky Pillar and awaken Rayquaza, who was said to be able to stop Groudon and Kyogre from fighting even in ancient times, and it worked this time as well. He's right next to me, if you want to talk to him as well.", he added.

"I don't need to talk to him right now, but you did a great job defending Hoenn against Rainbow Rocket. I hope you can maybe return to Pallet to help us out, but I understand you have to help out your region first before anything else.", exclaimed Lance.

Steven nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I know I have to stay here. Good luck in your next missions, and until next time."

He waited a second after he finished speaking into the phone app before he hung up, exiting out of the PokeNav Plus's phone app and back onto the home screen. Steven then closed it shut and slipped it back into his pocket, walking back towards Wallace on the way.

"Hey, Steven. What did Lance have to say about all of this?", asked Wallace as he noticed his friend walking towards him.

"Basically, he just said that he was thankful we helped out and that Maxie and Archie were defeated, and he wanted us to come back to Pallet. Didn't know if he was speaking for himself, Cynthia, Diantha, and even Alder, but that's what he said.", Steven explained quickly.

"Oh, all right then. I was worried for a second he would turn back into this rage-filled mode for us basically wrecking the city. You may have been looking for stones three years ago, but you should have seen his face when I came back from that Contest meeting and had no idea that Team Magma and Team Aqua had attacked.", exclaimed Wallace jokingly.

"Oh yeah… wasn't Lance on an undercover mission inside Team Magma's ranks when that happened? I remember Cynthia and the others filling me in about it when I first became Champion.", Steven recalled.

"He was, and he had some help too. Turns out Ash Ketchum and his friends were also involved with that incident as well. Lance said he found the kid hiding in a Team Magma helicopter, his Pikachu having absorbed the Red Orb. Isn't that crazy?", asked Wallace.

"Yeah… it's something. I first met Ash and his friends in Granite Cave down by Dewford Town in a pretty basic encounter, but when I was in Kalos it was something else. He was at the center of the whole battle with Team Flare's leader, and I came over and helped out with Diantha and the Kalos Gym Leaders.", exclaimed Steven.

"I even stayed in Kalos after that whole incident was over for a few weeks to help repair the damage done to the region after the battle along with my team of agents and a few others, but I came to Blackthorn City as soon as Lance called me after Indigo Plateau was blown up.", he added.

"Well, I may have retired from being a Champion, but it seems that you're picking up just as much slack. You really know how to be calm under pressure, which is something I never had in that position of power.", complimented Wallace.

"I wouldn't say you're completely 'retired' yet, old friend. You're still the biggest face and name in Pokemon Contests and you even have your yearly Contest tournament to add to that!", exclaimed Steven.

"That's true… but you're doing a great job out there. I need to stay here and help take care of the city, but you can go back to Ever Grande and continue to manage affairs there.", commented Wallace.

"Really? I think I should help out… it would be for the good of the city and all of Hoenn as well.", reassured Steven as he stood up from his chair.

Wallace shrugged as he stood up to meet Steven. "Whatever you say… you were always the one to help for charity. I won't stop you from doing anything, and you can do whatever you feel is right here."

Steven nodded. "All right then. Let's get to work."

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Sinnoh Region - Unknown Location**_

"This house looks pretty small, so not many people could live here. Let's take a look around tf the door is unlocked.", commented Dawn as she walked in front of the small house.

"I'll walk around the back and check for anything while you two try and go inside and see if anyone's inside.", added Ash as he walked towards the back of the house.

"All right. Let's go, Barry!", exclaimed Dawn as she moved to the house's front door.

Barry followed Dawn as they made their way to the front door, which was at the end of a simple porch with a few stairs leading up to the entrance. There was a chair next to the door to look at the distance in front of the house, but other than that the porch was empty.

"There's only one way to know if the door's unlocked or not, so here goes nothing!", commented Barry as he grabbed the front doorknob determinedly.

Barry twisted the doorknob to the right, and surprisingly he heard the lock retreat back into the door. He smiled as he pushed the door open, and Dawn watched as he took a few steps inside the small house. He observed the small and quaint nature of the building and the items inside of it, which were very simple and didn't need any explanation. There was a bookshelf in the right corner, a TV and a few chairs across from it, and two closed doors on the back wall of the room they had just walked in.

"This place looks pretty small… maybe only one or two people live here. Either way, we need to see who lives here, even if they're not home right now since they could help us out.", exclaimed Dawn as she looked around.

"Well, what are we waiting for? I'll check the other rooms while you stay here and look around. Let's go!", yelled Barry as he ran to the other side of the room.

Dawn watched as he swung one of the closed doors open and ran inside, and she just shrugged as she walked around the main room, which seemed to include a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room table all in the small space it had to fit in. She continued to walk around the small room, noticing the somewhat-dusty bookshelf as she walked by that section of the living area. She also observed the small carpet in the center of the room and raised an eyebrow at such an uncanny design choice.

"Hey, Dawn? You've got to check this out in five seconds or else I'm fining you!", yelled Barry from another room, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"All right! I'm coming!", yelled Dawn as she ran towards the sound of Barry's voice and opened the door that she was sure Barry was behind.

She was right, since she saw Barry standing in a small bedroom with a nightstand, a bed, and a small desk. Dawn walked over to him and saw that he was looking at a framed picture that looked very old and was extremely blurry.

"Dawn, check this out! It's some kind of picture, but I can't tell who's in it… ", murmured Barry as he handed the frame to Dawn.

Dawn looked at the photo for a few seconds intensely, noticing two people in what looked like a grassy background, and she could barely make out some sort of building in the distance far behind the people in the photo.

"Dawn… do you know who these people are? Because I sure don't… ", muttered Barry as Dawn continued to look at the picture.

"I'm not sure, Barry. The picture is too blurry for me to see anything, and I can't make out any details, especially the faces of whoever's in this photo.", commented Dawn as she put the photo back on the nightstand.

"Well, whoever's in that photo must be really important to whoever lives here if they have it right next to their bed.", Barry added quietly.

Dawn was about to respond, until she heard some noises from outside the house. She and Barry turned around at the same time as they noticed the sounds, and they looked back towards each other, both with confused expressions on their faces.

"Do you think that's Ash back there?", asked Barry as Dawn ran out of the bedroom and back into the living room.

Dawn shrugged as she turned back around to face Barry. "I don't know, but I'm going to make sure I find out."

* * *

Ash made his way around the small house until he found himself at the back, with a rocky mountain beginning to form behind him as he looked at the house in front of him. There were some basic storage boxes behind the house, and a generator plugged in as well to provide power and electricity to the building. He opened up one of the storage boxes and started to take a look through its contents, until a shiny gleam that seemed to reflect off of something inside the box, blinding him for a few seconds as he tried to cover his eyes from the light.

He dug through the storage box some more, desperate to find the source of the blinding light as his hands moved through books, lamps, and more until his eyes laid on a picture that was buried deep under everything else in the box. He pulled the photo out from the box, and his eyes widened in shock at what he saw. The first thing he noticed was the background of the picture, which was a large grassland area that seemed to have lots of Pokemon in the distance, and he could see the large windmill that was a landmark of Professor Oak's laboratory back in Kanto.

"What the… why would this guy have a picture from Professor Oak's lab?", murmured Ash under his breath as he focused more on the people in the photo.

One of the people there was a young man wearing a blue shirt and a fancy blue hat, along with black pants and black shoes. His raven hair was wild and spiked out all around his head from under his pointed hat, and Ash could have sworn that the man seemed extremely familiar. Ash's eyes then moved to the person that the man was putting his arm around, and he dropped the photo in pure shock and denial. The frame cracked as the picture hit the ground, and Ash dropped to his knees and stared at the photo, his eyes wide open in pure shock. She may have looked a lot younger in the photo and her hair was down, but Ash could never forget the face of his own mother even if she was in an old picture. He rubbed his eyes for a second and focused back on the photo, trying to convince himself that it wasn't real.

Nevertheless, Delia Ketchum's face still appeared on the photo, and it all started to make sense to Ash. Maybe whoever lived here had a relationship with his mother and had this photo taken in Professor Oak's Pokemon preserve, but why would a photo from Professor Oak's lab back in Pallet Town be in a place like this, so far from Kanto as a whole? Ash noticed that the frame had cracked open at an angle so that the photo could be slid out of the broken frame. He carefully picked up the picture and held it in his hands, but he got an even bigger shock when he turned the photo around. The first thing he saw was a date for the photo, the date labelled as March of 1990, and a few sentences to the right acting as some sort of letter. He read out the letter in his head, and Ash felt as if he couldn't be any more angry at what he saw.

 _Delia,_

 _I'm not even sure I can even give you this letter, since I know it'll just be shaming me for who I really am, and that's a coward. You'll still probably think of me as one, but you'll really be mad if you end up reading this, or at least that's what I think._

 _I've already made up my mind about leaving, and I know it's not the easiest decision to make. Lucario and I have to train to become full-fledged Aura Guardians, just like my ancestors. I know that I'll be leaving you and Ash behind, but I'll come back as soon as I'm done with my training. I promise you, I will._

 _I know you'll hate me for this, but I have to fulfill my destiny. I should have known what I was getting into when I first started all of this, but young love and my cockiness got in my own way._

 _I'll come back one day, and that I truly promise._

 _-Riley_

Ash was on the verge of tears when he finished reading the letter, and he dropped the photo and started to cry as the photo dropped down onto the ground. Was this man really his father? Why did he have to leave like that? Once he wiped the tears from his eyes, they shot open again in shock as another realization reached his mind. If the man who had written the letter was named Riley, and he lived in such a place like this, then there was no doubt in his mind that he and everyone else here were on Iron Island, just off the coast of Sinnoh's Canalave City. He had met Riley once before along with Dawn and Brock, and he looked almost identical to the man in the photo, the only difference he looked a bit older. But if the photo was dated in early 1990, a few months before Ash would turn four years old, then they probably could be the same person.

Ash kicked the frame aside, but he picked up the photo and slipped it into his backpack. He didn't really know how to feel about this whole situation, since he had found out who his father actually was, but he felt extremely angry at him since he had already met him before and he hadn't told him, and the fact that he left his mom behind just to train as an Aura adept. Ash couldn't stand in front of the house for much longer, as the rage and denial were racing through his head, and he couldn't concentrate. He just turned his back and ran away from the building, away from the truth as he needed a break to reflect on this.

He didn't even think about looking back.

* * *

"Ash? Ash, where'd ya go?", asked Barry as he ran outside to the back of the house, but noticing no sign of his friend anywhere.

"Barry, is Ash there?", Dawn asked as she ran up to him near the house's back door, but Ash was nowhere to be found near the area.

Dawn put her hands to her face in worry. "Where could he have possibly gone?"

Suddenly, Dawn's Poketch started to ring, and she answered the call quickly after recognizing Brock's caller ID on the screen. She turned on the speaker function as Brock's voice began to speak on the phone, making sure that Barry could listen in as well.

"Hey, Dawn! We've found some of the others and we're at the top of the island's main peak. You should come as soon as you can!", exclaimed Brock through the phone.

"That's great! The only problem is that Ash just ran away for some reason and we can't find him anywhere. If you're on one of the highest peaks in the area, then do ya think you all could spot him? We wouldn't want to lose a friend like Ash right here.", asked Dawn.

Brock paused for a moment before responding again. "He couldn't have gone far, since we are on a pretty small island after all. And we've even found-"

"Wait a second. We're on an island?", shouted Barry.

"Yeah, and not just any random island. We all actually washed up here on Iron Island.", explained Brock through the phone.

"Iron Island? You mean the place we went to back in Sinnoh with the whole Team Galactic situation?", asked Dawn in surprise.

Barry was matching her surprised expression as Brock continued to be silent over the phone for a few more seconds, but they could hear some more voices speaking in the distance through the Poketch's speakerphone function.

"Uh, sorry about that. Riley just ran off out of here with his Lucario, but we're all still here. Maybe you should start coming over here quick before things get more complicated.", Brock commented.

"All right. We'll head over right away!", shouted Barry enthusiastically.

Dawn pressed a button on her Poketch, hanging up the call with Brock as she and Barry took one last look at the small house in front of them. She wasn't sure what Brock had meant with what he said about Riley or finding everybody else, but she was going to find out when she got there, along with Barry.

"Come on, Barry. Let's go."

* * *

"What do you mean, he ran off!", yelled Misty loudly into Brock's face.

"Well, Dawn said that Ash was looking around the house they found for any clues as to where they could end up, but he was gone when she and Barry went to to check with him.", confessed Brock defensively.

"But why would he run away from Dawn and Barry in the first place? Could it be that he found something important?", asked Gary suspiciously.

"I don't know… maybe it's connected to why Riley and Lucario ran off. Maybe they sensed Ash's aura and noticed something going on with him.", Brock explained.

Misty crossed her arms in a worried expression, despite all of Brock's claims. "I'm just worried about Ash, that's all. What if he's in some sort of danger right now?"

"Don't worry about it, Misty. Riley's practically an Aura Guardian, and I'm sure he knows everything about this island. He certainly seemed like he did last year when he helped us out against Team Galactic.", exclaimed Brock.

"You guys were here on Iron Island when Team Galactic was there? Professor Rowan said that they trying to excavate the ruins here for their own goals last year.", asked Gary.

"Yeah… we learned later that they used the Spear Key to try and locate Spear Pillar from the Iron Ruins, and Riley helped us drive Team Galactic away before they could complete their mission.", added Brock.

"Wait a minute… did you say that Riley was an Aura Guardian? Like a full-fledged one, not just someone who can barely use it like us?", asked May as she walked towards the conversation.

"He said that he had been training to become a full-fledged one for many years now here on Iron Island, but it looks like he's got no plans of leaving anytime soon. It probably takes years to become a true Aura Guardian like Riley, so he's just taking his time.", exclaimed Brock.

"That's cool! I wonder if he could give us any tips as to how to keep training with our Auras, since that could help a lot.", added Max as he blurted into the conversation.

The group heard some sounds from the entrance to the cave den, and they turned towards it to see Barry and Dawn running up the inclined steps towards them, and they watched them run their hearts out until they reached Brock and the others.

"Dawn! Barry! How was the workout?", joked Leaf as they stopped to catch their breaths.

"Arceus, that was exhausting. Glad to see everyone's here in one piece, though I still don't know why Ash ran off… ", murmured Dawn after she was greeted by the group.

"Ash so owes me ten million dollars once we find him after all of this is over! He can't just leave like he doesn't care about the rest of us!", yelled Barry as he sat down onto the ground.

Both Dawn and Barry looked completely worn out from walking uphill through all that rocky terrain for so long, and Dawn joined her friend on the ground to rest as the rest of the group continued to discuss the recent situation amongst themselves.

"Wait a second, Brock. Didn't you say we were on an island before when you were on the phone, and not some sort of big landmass like mainland Sinnoh?", asked Barry curiously.

"I did, because we're on Iron Island right now. The same place that Team Galactic tried to target last year in their quest for the Sinnoh space-time legends.", Brock explained to the impatient Trainer.

"Oh yeah, this is Iron Island! I should have recognized the rocky areas and rough scenery right away, but I was probably caught up with what Dawn, Ash, and I had to do earlier.", commented Barry.

Dawn's eyes widened in shock as she registered what Barry was saying. "So what you were saying about Riley over the phone was true? He's really here?"

"He was here, up until a few minutes ago. He must have sensed something and ran off with his Lucario, but he was planning on staying here for the night and enjoying his New Year's Eve here as well with Lucario.", exclaimed Brock.

"I feel bad for Riley, honestly. It kind of sucks that we had to drop in on his New Year's celebration like that, but random stuff like that tends to happen.", added Cilan.

"Wait a second. When did Cilan, Iris, and Trip get here? Not to mention Paul, Kenny, and almost everybody else?", asked Barry, frantically looking around the den at the others.

Drew turned around and noticed a whole group of people had arrived here, his eyes widening in surprise. He jumped back in surprise as he saw Iris, Cilan, Kenny, and the rest of the whole group glancing at him, but he quickly rubbed it off and went back to his normal stoic expression.

"Well, funny you should ask.", commented Clemont. "It all started when I woke up tied onto Cilan's Crustle in the middle of nowhere, with Cilan, Iris, and Kenny walking next to me… "

"Well, of course that makes sense, Clemont. Everyone here knows you're the slowest runner here, right?", joked Serena.

"I'm self-conscious about that!", Clemont cried. "And it wouldn't help that any invention that I make to try and fix my slowness always blows up in my face… "

"This isn't the time, you guys! We have to focus on finding where Ash went, and how we can bring him back as soon as possible. I can't be the only person who's worried about him right now.", exclaimed Misty.

"Misty, we're all worried about Ash right now, but Riley's probably going to take care of the whole situation if he finds Ash still on the island. I'm sure it'll turn out okay for all sides involved.", reassured Gary.

Misty crossed her arms in frustration. "I know it'll most likely turn out perfectly fine, but I'm still worried about Ash. He could be lost or already off the island by the time Riley finds where he went!"

"We could try and find him ourselves, but I'm sure Riley can take care of that. Something just tells me that we should leave him alone for this.", Brock finished.

* * *

Ash continued to run through the rocky terrain, making sure he was getting as far away from this place as he needed to be. He didn't want to leave the island or go back into town, but he needed to be alone to think about what he had just witnessed for a while. He had first learned that no, his dad was not on a journey as a Pokemon Trainer and was in fact hiding out on Iron Island for almost the past thirteen years to train as an Aura Guardian with his Lucario. That was a noble task for anyone, including his father, but Ash knew his mom was lonely and wanted her husband to at least give her a call just to cheer her up.

Ash was still partially in shock at even finding out who his father was, and he was also angry why Riley didn't bother to tell him the last time they met here on Iron Island. His mind was just running wild with all these emotions, and he put his head in his hands as he sat on a rock, contemplating what his family had led to. Suddenly, he sensed another strong Aura coming ever so closer to his location, and he stood up quickly while igniting the Aura around his body, ready to fight anyone who tried to cross him. He closed his eyes and entered Aura Sight, and while looking around his location he noticed an incredibly strong Aura above him that was incredibly similar to his own. Ash sighed as he opened his eyes and looked up at the cliff, and noticed a man dressed in blue leaning against a rock.

The man paused for a second as he noticed Ash look back at him, and he slid down the rocky slope to meet him. He wiped the sweat off his forehead as he walked towards his son, ready to face the biggest fear of his life. Ash watched Riley slide down the hill and walk towards him, his head bent down in shame as he came closer to Ash. He continued to stare at Riley until he stopped a few feet in front of him, his head finally lifting up to see him.

The father and son stared back at each other for a few minutes in silence, neither one willing to make the first move. Eventually, Ash's concentration broke off and he put his head down as he sat down on the rock again. Riley took a deep breath as he walked forward to meet Ash, and he sat down on the ground in front of him, knowing full well that this was definitely the most stressful moment of his life. Ash saw this and looked up at him, and Riley knew he had completed one step in this long task of forgiveness.

"Hey… Ash? Look… I can tell you found out already, and I know you're not happy with me for one second. Could you at least let me some time to explain myself and my decisions for a moment?", Riley asked softly.

Ash looked up at his dad, contemplating the decision he had to make. He still wanted to know the reason behind Riley leaving his mom and him behind in Kanto, despite all the anger that he felt towards him for doing so.

He nodded his head, and Riley briefly smiled before talking.

"Ash, I've seen your journey unfold in front of my eyes. I've watched you save the world time after time again, and I can tell you that I've done the same things back when I was young. I was named a Chosen One down in the Orange Islands, and I returned three spheres back to Shamouti Island just like you did.", exclaimed Riley.

Ash's eyes widened in shock, but he still didn't say anything. Riley noticed the silence and didn't respond either.

"After a few years of traveling through the regions and taking on Pokemon Leagues, I met Delia when visiting the famous Professor Oak's lab in Pallet Town, where she was working as an assistant. We hit it off and started dating for a few years, until she had to return home to Pallet Town around seventeen years ago.", he continued.

Ash was silent through this whole explanation, but Riley could sense that he was intrigued by the whole story. He took a deep breath and decided to resume, knowing that he was reaching the climax of his fairly long story.

"I went to Pallet Town with Delia and stayed there for a couple of months with her, until she became pregnant with you, Ash. Those nine months were hard to deal with back then, but it was so worth it in the end. It was an amazing experience living with Delia and helping take care of you, and I wish I could have come back sooner.", Riley added.

Ash raised an eyebrow as Riley finished his last sentence, and the Aura Guardian knew fully why his son was so confused. He knew he should have returned years earlier once his training was completed for real, but he was too scared as to what could happen to him if he ever returned to Pallet.

Riley began to speak. "I raised you with Delia for almost four years and we got officially married, but at that time my destiny was calling. I bet you know by now that my side of the family is connected to the Aura Guardians of Rota and Sir Aaron, and I had already unlocked my abilities during my journey as a Pokemon Trainer."

"I got Lucario from the Lucario Kingdom here in Sinnoh when I first started out, and we were training on and off in Pallet Town while taking care of you. When you were close to turning four, I had an epiphany. I had figured out my ancestry by then, and I felt it was my birthright to try and become an Aura Guardian. If you want to, that's something you should consider doing, but I'm not the person to tell you that.", he continued.

Ash raised an eyebrow in surprise, but his intrigued expression compelled Riley to finish the story.

"I talked to Delia about it, and she obviously opposed it since you were still a kid and she felt that you needed a father figure, which I should have conceded to. I wrote a letter to her that I never actually gave to her, and I moved over to Iron Island to conduct my training with privacy.", added Riley.

"I don't expect you to forgive me for everything I'm done, but i just wanted to say I'm sorry, Ash. I'm sorry for leaving you and Delia back in Pallet to fulfill my own selfish desires, and for not coming back because I was too scared, and I may still be afraid now. You have every right to be mad at me.", he finished.

Riley hung his head down in shame as Ash contemplated what his father had just explained to him. The question is, would he still be mad at Riley for what he'd done or give him a chance to redeem himself in his eyes.

Ash sighed in sadness as he faced his old man. "Riley… dad… you don't understand. Mom wants you to come back every day, and I've known that much longer than I've known that you're my father. She's lonely in Pallet Town with me being on a journey and you… just loafing around here."

"Professor Oak and my friend Tracey still keep her company, but I bet you she would want you to come back as soon as possible, any day of the week.", muttered Ash.

Riley's eyes widened in shock. "You really think so? I thought that everyone there would be mad at me for leaving like that and not returning for years…"

"Mom would probably be really mad at first, but she obviously loved you enough to agree to marry you, so I don't think she would hold a grudge for that long, if she does at all. You of all people would know that she's a very optimistic and positive person.", exclaimed Ash.

"I don't know… I was too worried that if I came back, then the whole town would hate me for what I did to Delia. Professor Oak and Spencer would be after me, as well as her other friends who I had met back in Pallet Town.", murmured Riley.

"This whole thing is gonna take some time getting used to… but I'm kind of glad we got to talk. It made dealing with this at first a lot more easier for me.", Ash commented softly.

Riley smiled at his son's happiness. "I really appreciate that, Ash. But I'm just going to answer this burning question first before you have to ask me it."

"The reason I didn't tell you anything about this the last time you were here was because I felt that you were having such a great time traveling around with Dawn and Brock through Sinnoh, and I didn't want to disturb that with a bombshell like this whole situation. I had heard about your… incident a month ago but I figured that you weren't really dead because you and your friends' Aura was still active, and growing in numbers.", answered Riley.

Ash nodded in understanding. "I guess that makes sense from your point of view, but if you would have returned home earlier that wouldn't have been a problem, and neither would it be one today."

"I know that, Ash… I'm just too much of a coward to try and confront my fears. I've been living here for almost thirteen years, training my Aura abilities to become a master Aura Guardian, wondering how I would be treated if I ever returned back to Pallet Town.", exclaimed Riley.

"Well, then you should think about coming back. Mom would be mad, yes, but she would probably be so relieved she would forget about what she was mad about in the first place. For Mom's sake and for my own, please just think about it.", begged Ash.

Riley smiled. "I will, Ash. I promise you that."

Suddenly, Ash and Riley heard footsteps from behind them, and they turned around to see Riley's Lucario approaching them from behind. They both sighed in relief as the Aura Pokemon walked up to them and stood next to his owner's side.

"Wow, Lucario. You almost made me think that someone was sneaking up on us or something.", exclaimed Riley sheepishly.

Lucario smirked at his owner as he walked over to Ash, who looked on in confusion as he held out his hand. Ash silently shrugged and shook Lucario's hand, almost getting a sense of familiarity from the Pokemon he'd only really known since last year.

Then again, he'd only really known Riley since last year, but the truth had to come out eventually.

"Lucario remembers you, of course. He said that if you wanted to stay for the night with your friends, then he wouldn't mind at all.", exclaimed Riley.

"It's… around eleven o'clock now, but I'm not sure if I want to stay here much longer. Today's been a long day in general, and now after learning all of this in just a few hours I don't know if I can stay here either. It's all just… surprising and it's almost like I've learned that my life was a lie.", explained Ash.

Riley nodded in understanding, but he still looked a little disappointed. "I totally get it, Ash. You need to deal with what I've told you in the best way you can, and I'm perfectly fine with you deciding not to stay here for the night. A father can dream, after all."

"Thanks for the support, dad. Man, it's gonna be weird saying that…", murmured Ash softly.

"Lucario? Can you send Ash's friends over here so they can try and make their way to the homeland? We're pretty close to town, so you could walk there and maybe sneak onto a ship to carry you to Canalave.", asked Riley.

Lucario nodded its head as it turned back around and ran back to the rocky cliffs, using Extreme Speed to run much faster along with an Aura boost to add onto that. Ash and Riley watched as Lucario ran back to the cliffs as they stared back at each other, happiness as well as sadness present in their eyes.

"Listen, Riley? I'm really happy I found out about you being my dad and all, but I just wish I could have learned it sooner. The only thing I really want to tell you now before I leave is that you should really come back to Pallet Town. Mom really misses you, and I knew that before I even knew you.", exclaimed Ash.

Riley smiled softly as Ash finished talking. "I'll consider it, Ash. I really will, but I'm still worried about how people would react to my returning to Pallet Town after so long."

He stood in front of Ash in silence as his son walked up to him slowly and embraced him in a hug, which he returned as the father and son finally embraced together in relief.

"Take care, Ash. I'll be here whenever you need me, and I really will consider returning home to Pallet Town when the time is right.", exclaimed Riley as he broke off the hug.

"I really appreciate it, Riley… dad. I'll try to call you back once this situation is all over. Just please think about going home. Mom would really want to see you again at least once.", added Ash.

Riley nodded in understanding. "All right. You should walk back near town, and I made sure Lucario would drop off Dawn, Brock, and the rest of your friends at the edge of town. You should try and sneak on a ferry if you don't have tickets, or fly into Canalave on your Pokemon."

Ash smiled. Maybe meeting his dad wasn't such a bad thing in the end after all. "All right. I'll try to call as much as I can!"

"See you around!", exclaimed Riley as he watched Ash start to walk away from him and towards the port town on the island's southern coast.

Riley smiled as he turned around and walked back to the cliffs. It was really nice that he got a chance to talk with Ash about everything that had happened in the past, and he felt relieved that his son didn't hold any grudges against him for what he'd done back then. He didn't know what to think about how people would react to him coming back to Pallet Town after almost thirteen long years, but he needed to take a risk and do it only when the time was right for him. In the meantime, he would have to consider his choices, which added up to only two in total. Would he continue to be a coward and stay here on the island with Lucario, or was Ash right in saying that Delia would welcome him back if he returned to Pallet Town?

Either way, he would have to figure it out by himself.

* * *

Ash smiled as he saw the landscape of Iron Island's port town appear from below the rocky cliffs. He felt that his encounter with Riley had gone a lot better than he had initially predicted at first, and the stars seemed to shine on the town as the clock was approaching midnight and the year 2003. He broke into a run as he saw the rest of the group huddled around near the trail that led back into the port town, and they noticed Ash running up to them as they turned around to face him in happiness and relief.

"Ash! Thank Arceus you're okay!", exclaimed Misty as she ran up to him and wrapped him in a giant hug, which she followed with a short peck on the lips.

Ash returned the kiss and broke off from the hug, him turning around to face everybody else. "Hey, guys! Did Lucario help you out and bring you here?"

"Yeah, he did… but you weren't there to see that. How do you know about that?", asked Brock in confusion.

"Riley and Lucario found me when I had… ran off. We talked about some stuff as he sent Lucario to pick you guys up from where you guys apparently were.", exclaimed Ash softly.

Gary raised an eyebrow. "Well, what did you talk about?"

Ash widened his eyes and took a deep breath, knowing full well that this would be a shocker.

"The fact that he's my dad."

* * *

 _ **December 31, 2002. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

"Only a few minutes to go… ", muttered Diantha as she turned her computer off and walked towards the other Champions.

"It's been quite a year. From dealing with the remnants of Team Galactic in January all the way to this worldwide fight against Rainbow Rocket… I'm not sure if 2003 can even top what I've done this year.", added Cynthia.

"2002's been a rough year for all of us. The best thing we can hope for one the clock strikes midnight is that 2003 will be much peaceful in terms of conflict, especially if we don't have to deal with two or more evil organizations in the same year, like with Plasma and Flare this past year.", exclaimed Lance.

"Tell me about it. Plasma's influences are still damaging Unova's peace months after they were dissolved! My Elite Four's taken ages to try and calm down the last remnants of them.", complained Alder.

Diantha nodded. "Team Flare's done the same to Kalos as well. We had to send in some International Police to stop some leftover Admins and scientists of Team Flare that were causing more trouble in Lumiose while I came here."

"Come on, everyone! We should go watch the fireworks!", exclaimed Cynthia as she opened the door.

The Champions ran outside the lab and joined Professor Oak, Mrs. Ketchum, and Tracey as they sat outside and watched the crew prepare the fireworks to launch from the town square, with everybody else in the town watching as well.

"Glad you all could make it! You know, this is the first time we've had fireworks in Pallet Town, since most of the time there's another show in Viridian City.", exclaimed Professor Oak as he sat down on the front porch of his laboratory.

"That's great! It's going to be exciting for sure!", chirped Diantha.

Tracey checked his watch and his eyes widened in shock, with Professor Oak and Mrs. Ketchum scrambling to look at the time. "It's going to start soon, guys!"

"Ten, nine, eight, seven… "

Cynthia closed her eyes as the time was read off in anticipation. All she wanted for 2003 was to finish the situation with Rainbow Rocket, of course, but she did have some secret hopes and dreams along the way. All she hoped for was that they could come true eventually.

"Six, five, four, three… "

Delia stared up at the starry sky, with the year 2003 right beyond the corner for her. She always had one wish whenever a new year rolled around, and that was so see her husband again. She had always hoped that he would eventually return after training for so many years, and she would continue to keep dreaming that for as long as she lived.

She sighed. "Riley… "

"Two, one! HAPPY NEW YEAR!", interrupted Tracey.

A weight that nobody had previously felt seemed to be lifted off of everybody's shoulders, and they relaxed in relief as their troubles seemed to be over for just one night. Cynthia hugged Lance, who were then both pulled into a group hug with Diantha by Alder in celebration.

Tracey ran up and hugged Professor Oak in happiness as Delia laid down on the grass, finally ready to relax as the new year had only just begun.

* * *

 _ **January 1, 2003. Hoenn Region - Sootopolis City**_

"Steven? It's midnight already. Happy New Year!", exclaimed Wallace as he walked over to his friend.

Steven was sitting on the edge of the water in between the city's east and west sections, and Wallace had just walked up to him from his former Gym in order to try and enjoy New Years' with his old friend. His Elite Four were basically cleared from the medical tent, so they could join in the fun later as well.

Steven's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? Happy New Year, Wallace."

He stood up and shook Wallace's hand in celebration, before the two walked back toward the docks. They noticed their Elite Four standing and celebrating by themselves at the beginning of the docks, and they approached them slowly in order to join in the fun.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally got out of the hospital. Happy New Year, you guys!", exclaimed Steven as he ran up to his Elite Four.

"Right back at ya. 2003 is gonna be great, I just know it!", commented Sidney enthusiastically.

"Well, only if we stop Rainbow Rocket first. I don't want to ruin the mood, but they're all still out there, and we should prepare to combat them if they ever come to Hoenn again.", explained Wallace in a serious tone.

"But not tonight! Let's chill out and enjoy the night!", shouted Drake as he jumped into the air.

"You said it! Let's head over to my place right now!", added Wallace as he ran off to his house, the others following behind him.

Steven was behind the whole group as they all followed Wallace, just thinking about the future events to come in this new year. He didn't know if Giovanni would ever be defeated soon, but he could always hope that he would be. He also had his own dreams that he kept to himself about, and he always dreamt about them and hoped they would come true for many months and years. Hope seemed to define his days now, hoping that Rainbow Rocket would be defeated and that his other possibilities would concur in his favor.

And that was something Giovanni nor anyone else could not take from him.

* * *

 _ **January 1, 2003. Sinnoh Region Waters.**_

Dawn walked out to the deck of the ship and saw a bunch of people relaxing and enjoying themselves, until her eyes noticed a few people from the group hanging out by the railing, looking out on the Sinnoh waters. The group had boarded another ship bound for Canalave that had docked in Iron Island for the night, and they had already made themselves at home with their rooms and the amazing views present on the deck. She continued to walk towards the group, noticing a fair amount of her friends either on the benches of leaning on the railing. She also noticed that a lot of people seemed to be hanging out or talking together in pairs, not to mention people making out in them.

Ash was romantically holding hands with Misty on the railing, while Drew was cuddled up to May and kissing her occasionally. Gary was talking engagingly with Leaf on the benches, and Iris was probably teasing Cilan about something, not to mention many others in the group talking with each other. When they first arrived on the ship, everyone wanted to get a piece out of Ash about Riley surprisingly being his father. Dawn had remained silent during the whole exchange, as she didn't know what to think anymore about him being Ash's father because it was so surprising to her. Dawn sat down on the bench next to Brock as the rest of the group continued to enjoy themselves in the first few hours of 2003. The Pokemon Doctor noticed her silence compared to everybody else hanging out, and he scooched over to her to try and ask her about it.

"Hey, Dawn. Why aren't you hanging out with the rest of the group?, asked Brock in confusion.

Dawn perked up as she faced Brock. "I kinda don't feel like it. I think I need some time to just keep to myself after everything that's happened yesterday."

"That's perfectly fine, Dawn. I was just wondering if you were all right or not, but looks like I don't have to worry at all.", explained Brock.

"No, it's fine. I might eventually get up and hang out later, but I'll probably stay here for now and keep to myself. It's been a very long couple of days.", exclaimed Dawn.

Brock nodded in understanding and moved away from Dawn, giving her some space to think for herself as she noticed everybody else having fun and talking to each other, almost as if they didn't have a care in the world despite all the stressful incidents that had happened over the past few days. She her eyes turned to the left side of her vision to see Paul leaning up against the railing of the ship, all alone and presumably thinking to himself about the events of the past few days. She felt an urge to try and talk to him, and she figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal since she was just being nice. Dawn stood up from the bench and walked slowly up to Paul, who slowly turned to his side to face her. She was silent for a moment next to him as she didn't know what to say to start a conversation, noticing the stoic expression on Paul's face in contrast to the beautiful starry sky of the night.

"What do you want? I don't remember asking you to come and just stare at me for ten seconds.", grunted Paul.

Dawn's eyes widened in embarrassment. "No, it's not that! I was just about to ask you… if you're all right after what's happened over the past few days."

Paul paused for a few seconds, considering what Dawn had asked him. He wasn't sure if he really should answer her question, but he couldn't come up with a reason why he shouldn't give a response at all.

"The past few days have been stressful, but it just seems to be nothing that I can't handle, and you all seem to be doing just as fine as me. It doesn't look like we're struggling as a group against these guys, so it's just been going fine for me.", he answered.

"Well, that's nice. But what do you think about Riley being Ash's father and all? That's got to be a shocker!", commented Dawn enthusiastically.

Paul thought to himself for a moment before responding to her question. "I don't think it's that surprising. They obviously looked alike from the beginning, so I didn't count it out when I first met him."

"Besides. If you ever found out who my old man was, then you guys would completely freak out. I'm not kidding.", added Paul.

Dawn just shrugged and gave a smile back at him, which surprised Paul greatly. It was nice that she was taking time out of her day to talk to him, but he felt like he didn't need to be pitied by her if she noticed him being by himself most of the time.

"I'm sure it can't be that bad! He is your father, after all."

* * *

 _ **January 1, 2003. Western Sinnoh Penitentiary.**_

"Hey, guards! What time is it!", shouted a man sternly.

Saturn looked through the iron bars of his small jail cell, trying to spot any guards working the night shift for the day. He only really got to check the time when his block was let out for outdoor activities in the morning, where there was a giant clock in the center of the field.

He gripped the cell bars tighter in frustration. "Hello? Is anyone there?!"

He then heard footsteps coming from around the corner on the left side of the hallway, and he knew the stairs to the next block of cells were around that corner of the building. Saturn then saw the shadow of light from a lantern coming closer from that side of the hallway, and he perked up in anticipation to see who was coming.

"But, Mr. Akagi! You can't expect me to let go not one, not two, but three prisoners for no apparent reason! I know you're an important businessman and all, but this is uncalled for!", shouted a guard's voice as he walked around the corner, nearing Saturn's cell.

Saturn's eyes widened in shock as he heard what the guard was saying. Cyrus Akagi, his old boss at Team Galactic, had really returned from the new universe Dialga and Palkia had created and was here to free him, Jupiter, and Mars out of prison. It was the luckiest day of his life!

"I can assure you this. This man and my other two friends that your colleagues have graciously let go have been a big part of my life, and I would hate to see them live like this in a rotten prison. I'll make sure they won't get back here again for as long as I live.", exclaimed Cyrus's voice.

There was a pause as the guard seemed to jump back in surprise, then collect something from Cyrus's hands as he grabbed the key to Saturn's cell. The guard put the key in the lock and twisted it open, allowing Saturn to walk out of the cell and to his freedom.

"Thank you very much, mister. Your services have already been rewarded with my payment. Now if you could please let us go, then you will be forever in my debt.", exclaimed Cyrus as Saturn walked out of the cell, relief fully present on his face.

Cyrus walked away from the disbelieved guard as Saturn followed him up the stairs and through the floor above. Eventually, they made it to the entrance of the penitentiary and walked past a guard asleep at the front desk as they made their way out of the building itself.

"Cyrus, sir. Why aren't there any alarms being set off by me leaving my cell?", asked Saturn in confusion.

"The guard I talked to about letting Jupiter and Mars go made sure to disable all alarms for the next hour, so we're in the clear. You're the last person I need to free from here, so we'll have no chance of getting caught.", exclaimed Cyrus sternly.

"But what about Charon? Did you free him from here as well? And how did you escape from your… new world?", asked Saturn again.

"It turns out that our firm has been purchased by new assets, who had already bailed Charon out to help free me from my world. As much as I resisted, my world was empty, and I would much rather turn this world with everyone in it to one without spirit.", explained Cyrus.

Saturn nodded in understanding as Cyrus approached a large helicopter which seemed to belong to him. The back door of the helicopter opened from the inside, and Saturn noticed Jupiter and Saturn in new black and grey uniforms reminiscent of their old ones, with two R's engraved onto the area where the Team Galactic logo had been.

"Wow, Saturn. You don't look so good, but that's probably going to change soon.", greeted Mars as she stepped up to greet him.

Saturn nodded. "Well, where are we even going in this thing?"

"I don't even know yet. By the way, your new uniform is over by the seats.", exclaimed Jupiter as she pointed behind her.

Saturn walked over to the front of the helicopter as he noticed a two-tone black and gray uniform that looked exactly like his old one on the seat. He held it up and studied it, noticing the double R logo where the Team Galactic insignia had been.

"What do these double R's mean? Those three nutjobs from last time seemed to have a similar logo to this… ", asked Saturn.

"We're now a part of Rainbow Rocket, a new organization born from Kanto's old Team Rocket. The three buffoons that bothered us in Sinnoh were a low-ranking part of that organization, but now they seem to actually look competent.", exclaimed Cyrus.

Saturn nodded and smirked at his former Galactic comrades.

"Interesting… "

* * *

That's another chapter in the books, and and I'm really satisfied with how this one turned out. I know some people may be confused as to why I included Ash's father in the story and why I made Riley Ash's father as well, but I can fill you in right here. I've always wanted to include Ash's father in the story just to see how it would play out for Ash and what it would mean for the stakes of him defeating RR, and I figured Riley would be the best bet for Ash's dad because he can also use Aura, he has the same hair color as Ash, and they just look incredibly similar to each other in general.

Anyways, the whole group's adventures in Sinnoh are only just beginning, so stay tuned for more. Feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	21. XX - Rushed Arrival

**Chapter 21 is here, and what a wait it's been! I've been busy with the usual things September brings to the table for anybody, and that's caused me to have a slight delay in this chapter's upload date. But don't worry, since because you're reading this then this chapter has been uploaded in the first place, which is always a good thing for all of us.**

 **Now, onto the latest chapter!**

* * *

 **January** _ **2, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Canalave City**_

" _Attention all passengers, this is Captain Adams speaking. We have docked into the port of Canalave City, and we should be ready to let you off in a few minutes. We here at Sinnoh Cruise Lines bid you farewell, and have a nice day."_

Ash looked through the window of his room on the ship as the captain finished speaking through the ship's intercom, and he smiled once he saw the port area of Canalave City right in front of him. He shut off the light in his room and opened the door, noticing the excited faces of his friends outside the doors to their rooms. Misty and a few others walked outside of their rooms as Ash did, ready to leave the boat and start through the new region.

"We're finally gonna get off this boat! I honestly can't wait to explore Sinnoh with you guys, since it's just a great region to call home!", exclaimed Barry as he ran out of his room.

"I'll trust you on this one, Barry. Now we should start to head out and into the city, just so we can get settled before we leave deeper into the region.", commented Misty.

"It's a shame that we couldn't have arrived here yesterday, but the boat seemingly had to stop for that day and that day only. We could have already left Canalave City already!", cried Ash.

"You don't have to be so impatient all the time, Ash. Besides, we're lucky to even be in Sinnoh at all after what's happened over the past few days at least.", May added.

She walked into the main hallway from the entrance to her room, and the others soon followed behind her towards the ship's main doors that would lead them out of there and into the large port city in Western Sinnoh. The group managed to find the rest of their fellow members while walking through the ship towards the exit doors, and eventually they successfully made their way towards the exit as they joined a line that led to the doors at the edge of the ship.

"Won't this thing go any faster? We should get outta this place as fast as we can!", whispered Ritchie as he stood in the line.

"You're not helping anyone by complaining, you know. Let's just get out of this line and then we can leave this city right after.", Trip commented back from behind him.

"Be quiet, both of you! We don't want to attract any more attention, especially in a crowded place like this.", hissed Leaf, a serious tone present on her face.

Trip jumped back in fear of the G-Men agent. "Uh… no problem! My lips are sealed."

Ritchie walked over to the door and left the ship, with his friends following suit behind him as the ship's security guards looked on suspiciously at the group of what looked like twenty or so Pokemon Trainers as they walked past them nonchalantly.

"You're all clear to go. Have a nice stay in Sinnoh!", exclaimed the crew member at the door as the group walked out of the ship and onto the docks.

"All right. Let's stop at the Pokemon Center to relax for a moment before we check out the city. We should leave by tonight just to that we don't stay here for long and get spotted as a result.", explained Brock.

"Sounds good to me! We should head over right now, since it's not like we have anything else to deal with now.", Ash commented.

He stepped on the docks with the others and walked towards the streets, leaving the cruise ship behind as they took more steps into the port city and towards the Pokemon Center located within the city as well. They eventually walked through the city streets, noticing landmarks like the city's Pokemon Gym and some famous museums until they reached the Pokemon Center. The group walked inside the large center and sat down in the lobby as Clemont and a few others went to grab some snacks.

"Do you think we should check out some of those museums downtown? I heard they're pretty interesting to visit from a few articles I read.", suggested Serena.

She was looking at her Town Map as she finished speaking, which she had configured to show the Sinnoh region's layout as she scrolled through some articles on the Map's left screen while the map of Sinnoh was shown on the right screen.

"We shouldn't concern ourselves with things like museums, Serena. We have bigger things to worry about right now, such as how to move through the region if Rainbow Rocket doesn't get us involved first.", answered Leaf.

"I think it was worth a shot. Maybe Rainbow Rocket won't go directly here to Sinnoh after what happened in Hoenn, since they could decide to take a break for a few days.", commented Trip.

Misty looked on with a serious expression on her face. "I sure hope that's the case, or else we'd have no chance to rest after the battles we've faced in Hoenn over the past few weeks."

"That's true. If Rainbow Rocket decides to target this city because it's the closest to other regions due to its harbor and location in the west, then we should get out of here before they try to do anything bad here.", added Dawn grimly.

"Hey, guys! We got plenty of snacks for the road trip ahead, so go ahead and take some!", exclaimed Clemont as he ran over to the others.

Iris, Cilan, Kenny, Zoey, and Barry were all following the Lumiose Gym Leader through the Pokemon Center lobby towards the rest of the group as they held bags upon bags of food and supplies for their upcoming trip through Sinnoh. The others just looked on at the scene in front of them as they hauled their shopping bags towards them and placed them on the ground.

"You all have to carry that, since no one person could manage to carry all those supplies by themselves. Let's split it up and get on our way now that everyone's here.", instructed Gary.

"All right. Let's move out!", exclaimed Drew.

He grabbed one of the bags along with a few others, and he was ready to walk out of the Pokemon Center when a sudden feeling of dread raced through his body. He could sense that something bad was about to happen as he dropped the bag and looked around his friends for any traces of that dread.

"Drew? Are you okay?", asked Brock in confusion.

"I… I'm not sure. Did anyone else feel what I'm feeling right now?", answered Drew.

He looked like he was extremely paranoid about something at that moment, and Brock noted that he was staring at him and the others with suspicion, almost like he was convinced everyone could be at fault for his dread.

"I thought I felt something earlier, almost like some powerful Auras approaching from a distance. I know it can't be you guys since we're all right here, so we should get out of here as quickly as possible.", Drew explained.

"I felt it too! It was almost like I could feel that something terrible was about to happen. If that's true, then we need to get out of here as fast as possible!", cried May as she pointed towards the door frantically.

More grim nods came from the other Aura adepts in the group, which combined to send everyone into a gloomy mood as they silently packed up their stuff back into their bags and got ready to leave. Ash was especially worried, since he couldn't think why Rainbow Rocket would target another region so quickly after what had happened in Hoenn.

"Uh, guys? I can feel those Auras getting closer… ", muttered Max, clenching his fists in anger.

"I don't think there's any time to leave. We've got to stay here and stop whoever's behind all of this!", exclaimed Ash as he stared at the Pokemon Center's front door, almost as if the enemy was right behind it.

 **KA-BOOOOM!**

A massive explosion rocked the Pokemon Center, with the group scattering to find some cover seconds after the ground shook and the deafening sound of debris falling filled their ears. The lights went out as the group and everyone else standing in the Pokemon Center scrambled all around the building, despite the flames from the explosion and the crumbling debris that was once the building's very own roof. Ash had ran over to under one of the booth tables in the Pokemon Center's restaurant section and crouched under the table as debris continued to fall from the ceiling. He could also hear the screams and shouts of his friends as they tried to duck for cover as the building collapsed above them, and he was desperately hoping for when the coast was clear to get out.

He looked up from the ground and noticed that the smoke was beginning to clear away from the lobby, and he watched as he saw a clump of shoes and legs run towards the booth that Ash was hiding under, which could only mean that a group of people had entered the building after the explosion went off. His mind found one conclusion while desperately searching for answers, and it was that these people could be the ones who set off the explosion. Maybe they were Rainbow Rocket Grunts that had purposely set some bombs off to trap them in the port city's main Pokemon Center.

"Only one way to find out… here goes nothing!", muttered Ash under his breath.

He crawled around the table's support beam towards the backside of the table, and he tried to squeeze his head above the table to see what faces belonged to that cluster of shoes and legs, who had split up earlier to presumably search other sections inside of the fairly large Pokemon Center. He only put his eyes above the table for a fraction of a second before pulling his head down to try not to attract any attention from the people standing in the middle of the Center lobby, but he could have sworn that a bunch of those people had green hair shaped in what barely looked like a bowl cut. He slowly lifted his head up and focused on the green-haired people, and he almost jumped back in shock once he noticed the all-too-familiar logo of Rainbow Rocket on their uniforms, but he managed to stop himself before he caused any more commotion.

"Green hair… Rainbow Rocket… but how? I thought they were all… ", murmured Ash as his eyes widened in shock.

He definitely recognized the green hair, and his jaw dropped once he realized the repercussions that stemmed from this realization. If these were former members of Sinnoh's own Team Galactic that were now allied with Rainbow Rocket, then that meant that Giovanni had broken them out along with their three Commanders, which even the thought of those three sent shivers down Ash's spine. Despite knowing that he could get caught, Ash kept his head above the table as he wanted to watch how this situation would play out with his own eyes just to see what these Grunts were doing and what exactly were they up to.

"Golbat! Scan the area for any survivors. We don't want them to see this.", snarked one of the Grunts as the rest of her team threw up a bunch of Pokeballs into the air.

A large group of Golbat emerged from the twenty or so Pokeballs, and Ash crouched further under the table as they flew throughout the wrecked Pokemon Center to presumably search for anyone who was still hiding under the debris and the collapsed second floor of the building.

"Hey, look at this! There's someone over there!", shouted a Grunt that was extremely close to Ash, as he quickly put his head under the table.

Ash winced in horror as the Grunt next to him finished speaking, with him knowing that he was absolutely done for as the rest of the Rainbow Rocket soldiers ran over to the booth that he was hiding under. He turned away and faced the wall as the Grunts bent over and stared at his backside from their side of the table, wondering if he would ever come on out from down there.

"Hey, you! We won't hurt ya, so you can come on out.", exclaimed a Rainbow Rocket Grunt as he bent down to stare at Ash.

Ash was silent as he considered his options. Would he succumb to the Grunts standing in front of him, or would he choose to fight and not back down even if he was cornered under a table in a wrecked Pokemon Center? He smiled as he relaxed his arms, his decision firmly made.

He would choose to fight.

Ash then clenched his fists from under the table, watching as a faint blue glow outlined his body as the thoughts and memories from Aura Guardians past raced through his mind. He would show these Rainbow Rocket scum who was boss, right here and right now. He turned around to face the Grunts and focused on the Aura surrounding him and directed it towards his right fist, which had received a substantial power boost thanks to the massive amount of Aura currently stored inside of it. Ash crouched down even further to make sure that he wouldn't hurt himself while doing this, and then punched the table. The wooden table went flying off the ground with its support beam still attached as it slammed into the five or so Rainbow Rocket Grunts that were standing right in front of it, and they were sent backwards into the opposite wall of the Pokemon Center along with the table.

"You're goin' down, kid! Golbat, use Shadow Ball!", cried one of the Grunts as he frantically pointed at Ash, who stared back at him intensely.

Ash had gotten up from his crouching position at that point in time as he noticed the Grunts' Golbat lining up to fire consecutive Shadow Ball attacks back at him. Once he saw the massive amount of Shadow Balls racing towards him, he activated his Aura all around his arm and knocked them all away, with some hitting a few Golbat in the process.

"Huh-what the! Who is this kid!", shouted one Grunt from the other side of the room.

Ash silently conjured up two Aura Spheres in his hands and fired them back-to-back at the remaining Golbats as the Grunts looked on in fear. One by one, their aerial force was defeated by one teenager and his seemingly endless supply of Aura within himself.

"Last one… and fire!", shouted Ash as he jumped up into the air and fired another Aura Sphere attack at the one remaining Golbat inside the Pokemon Center.

"Listen… please don't kill us… we're just following orders… ", murmured a Grunt from across the room, and Ash turned around to notice them.

Ash turned over to face the group of cowering Grunts as he walked over to them slowly, and they seemed to get even more scared as the Aura adept came ever closer to them. He continued to walk towards them until he was only a few feet in front of them, waiting silently as they shivered in fear.

"I'm not gonna kill you, but you did destroy this whole Pokemon Center. I say this is fair game.", muttered Ash as he charged dual Aura Spheres in his hands right in front of the Grunts.

Ash stood there sternly as he fired the Aura Spheres at the Grunts, making sure to not add too much power so that he would leave the Grunts alive, but still knocked out unconscious while leaning against the wall of the Pokemon Center as Ash slowly walked away from the pile of Grunts.

"Now to find everyone else… guys! Where are you!", shouted Ash as he started to walk through the Pokemon Center.

He walked through the wrecked halls of the Center's own restaurant, noticing people still hiding under the tables. He safely helped them up and led them on their way out of the building, until he made his way back to the front entrance and encountered even more smoke clouding the lobby.

"What's going on here? Who's there!", shouted Ash as he tried to run through the darkness, only to feel its effects as he shielded his eyes and mouth from the dark gray smoke all around him.

"Oh, don't tell me it's you again.", exclaimed a high-pitched voice from the other side of the smoke.

Ash's eyes widened in pure shock as the voice finished speaking through the dark smoke covering the entire lobby. He definitely recognized the voice from the other side, but he didn't think it was possible for her to be here. The last thing he heard about her was that she had been in prison for almost a year, but here she was in front of him, the two separated by the smoke.

"I should have known… looks like I have to do this myself.", muttered Ash as he clenched his fists in anger.

"I'm not alone, you know. Grunts, get him!", exclaimed the voice, The voice on the other end laughed at Ash's response for a few seconds before speaking again.

Ash watched as the dark smoke began to clear away, and he first noticed multiple groups of Golbat blowing the smoke away with their powerful wings. Once the smoke fully disappeared, Ash noticed another group of green-haired Grunts in front of him with their Golbat in the air, ready to attack him if he made a move. The Grunts cleared apart in the center of their clump as another figure stepped in front of the two crowds of Rainbow Rocket soldiers. Ash got a chance to see her clearly as the former Galactic Commander stepped forwards to face him. She was wearing a dark gray uniform with an attached skirt and pants with lines all over, and the dual R logo that symbolized the Rainbow Rocket syndicate engraved onto the chestplate of the uniform. Her fiery red hair was styled in her signature look as she stared intensely at Ash, who matched her gaze with equal intensity.

"Well, if it isn't Ash Ketchum.", snarked Commander Mars as she stopped for a minute to gloat at her disadvantaged enemy.

"Mars… you won't get away with this. If I won't stop you here, then the rest of my friends will. You'll never win… I can tell you that.", Ash exclaimed through gritted teeth.

Mars was on the verge of laughter as she shook her head. "That's where you're wrong. My team and I outnumber you by ten to one, and your friends are nowhere to be found."

Ash continued to grit his teeth and clench his fists in pure anger and rage as Mars stood in front of him, gloating at him like he had already lost. He would show her why he would never give up, especially against the likes of her and her formerly Galactic Grunts still serving under her.

"Golbat, wreck him with Air Slash!", shouted Mars as she pointed towards Ash.

Unbeknownst to Mars, however, Ash was busy charging up all the Aura reserves he had left and getting ready for one final burst of his remaining Aura energy that he would fire at Mars and the Grunts for his last all-out attack. The group of Golbat subsequently fired off their numerous Air Slash attacks directly at Ash, but Mars and her Grunts watched as he jumped into the air, dodging them all as the Golbat continued to release their powerful attacks at Ash while in midair. Ash, while still in midair, charged an extremely large Aura Sphere in his hands and threw it at the group of Golbat, which immediately fainted from the super-powered attack. Mars turned back in surprise as she saw her only aerial force be immediately destroyed with one attack.

"Grrr… why do you always mess with our plans! Purugly, get rid of him once and for all!", shouted Mars in disgust.

She threw a Pokeball in front of her that sent out her most powerful and trusted Pokemon, and Ash then found himself face-to-face with a very powerful Purugly that he knew was Mars's ace in the hole to get out of here alive.

"Use Slash!", commanded Mars fiercely.

Purugly ran up to Ash, its claws glowing as it tried to slice in his direction, but Ash had also dodged that attack as he jumped to his right to avoid the slashing claws of Mars's most powerful Pokemon.

Mars grit her teeth in frustration. "Keep using Slash, Purugly! Don't give him a chance to attack!"

Purugly continued to charge at Ash with multiple Slash attacks at the ready, leaving him running for his life as he repeatedly dodged the attacks heading his way. He wasn't sure if he could keep this up for much longer, as he was being pressured back up to Nurse Joy's desk while dodging the attacks. Ash was still charging up his remaining Aura reserves for one last stream of attacks as Mars's Purugly kept trying to attack him, but it was getting hard to prepare for one last attack when he was constantly being pressured by said Purugly. He needed just a second to prepare before he unleashed his attack on Mars and her Grunts.

"Purugly, charge now!", shouted Mars angrily.

Ash noticed Purugly racing towards his location as he crouched in front of Nurse Joy's desk, ready to make his move as Purugly's claws glowed, preparing its Slash attack. Once the Tiger Cat Pokemon was right in front of him, Ash jumped straight up into the air, and time almost seemed to slow down as Purugly crashed into the desk at full speed. Mars looked up in shock as Ash put his hands together on his right side, charging up a massive Aura Sphere attack that looked like it could wipe out Mars and her entire team instantly. Ash stared back at the speechless RR Admin as he felt his Aura Sphere was ready to be unleashed, and he threw it with one hand at Mars and her motionless Grunts.

 **BOOOM!**

The Aura Sphere flew right into the ground in front of Mars and her Rainbow Rocket Grunts, creating a huge wave of smoke and making it impossible to see what had happened to Mars and her Grunts. Ash landed down right next to Mars's Purugly, who had ran back into the veil of smoke to try and see if her trainer was okay.

"I think… I got 'em… thank Arceus.", muttered Ash as he bent down on his knees in relief to relax for a moment.

He sat down on the now-wrecked marble floor as he waited for the smoke to clear away from where Mars and her Grunts had been standing, and his eyes widened in shock once the dark veil had lifted in front of him. Mars was standing in front of a green shield of sorts that showed no signs of wear from the Aura Sphere Ash had just thrown at her and her Grunts. Speaking of her Grunts, they were also protected by the very same green sphere that covered Mars, and which seemed to emanate from a Bronzor in front of the former Galactic Commander.

Mars sneered at Ash as the shield dissolved. "Thanks for the Protect, Bronzor."

Ash glared back at the Rainbow Rocket Admin intensely, but he couldn't do anything to back that gaze up. His Aura reserves were almost depleted, and he didn't have enough to startle her again so that her Bronzor wouldn't be able to use Protect to block an attack from Ash once more.

"Looks like our work here is done. Team G2, heading out!", Mars snarked as she turned around from Ash without batting an eye.

The Rainbow Rocket Grunts cleared a path for her as she walked away from the exhausted Ash, and the Grunts followed behind her as their whole group walked out of the wreckage that used to be the Pokemon Center's front door. Ash fell down onto the dirty and dented floor of the Pokemon Center. He may have lost this short battle against Mars, but he already knew he would come back and defeat her again with the help of his friends. He still needed to find his friends, however, before Rainbow Rocket tried any more funny business inside this Pokemon Center or in Canalave City as a whole. But for now, Ash had decided to lie down on the dirty floor of the half-collapsed Pokemon Center, needing a short break to relax and find the rest of his friends later on. He didn't know where they had ended up, but he was sure Mars or anyone else back in Rainbow Rocket wouldn't want to go directly back here and try to wreck the city again, and he was gambling on that so that he would have extra time to restore his energy and find his friends as well.

It was a risky gamble, but he was confident that it would pay off as he closed his eyes and started to focus on replenishing his Aura, knowing that he would find his friends soon.

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

"Hey, Cynthia! You should come down and see this. The Kanto-Sinnoh Winter Classic is on right now!", exclaimed Lance from downstairs, catching Cynthia's attention.

The Sinnoh Champion's eyes widened in surprise as she got up from her desk chair and raced downstairs towards the living room in Professor Oak's laboratory, where Lance and Alder were sitting on the couch and watching TV. She sat down on the other couch adjacent to them as the commercial ended and it went back to the hockey game.

"Yeah, so the Sinnoh team is leading 3-2, but I bet you that'll change here in the third period. Alder and I have already placed our bets, and you bet we're waiting to cash in on some money soon enough!", exclaimed Lance.

"Looks like all that time here has made you go soft, Lance. Shouldn't you be all serious and tough right now, especially after what happened in Hoenn a few days ago?", Cynthia asked.

"You saw me these past few days, Cynthia. I was upset, but I always take my time to watch the greatest hockey match this country has ever seen!", explained Lance enthusiastically.

Cynthia nodded her head in a mixture of confusion and understanding. "I can understand that, but it just seems like you've become a totally different person in the span of just a few hours."

"You're right, but I need some time to relax, Cynthia. This game is my time to act like a normal person, away from the people and the press and to just enjoy some hockey.", confessed Lance.

Cynthia shrugged. "Whatever, Lance. Let's just watch it anyway."

"Speaking of which, why are they even playing now? Don't these teams realize that everyone could be hurt by Rainbow Rocket's actions that could stretch over to all regions? Why are they still playing hockey?", asked Cynthia.

Lance shook his head. "The people need their lives to return to normal, Cynthia. They need a distraction after all the terrible events that have happened, and sports are a great way to fix that."

"I guess that makes sense, but I was kind of worried for a second there. You were acting so unrealistically hyper and excited that I actually thought that you and Alder had switched bodies.", Cynthia joked.

Lance's eyebrows raised in confusion. "Really? I didn't think that I acted so out of-"

" _This is the Channel 1 Kanto News Network with a breaking news report. Just a few minutes ago, the Pokemon Center in Sinnoh's Canalave City exploded, and the culprits were nowhere to be found throughout the city so far. We don't know who's behind this for sure, but it could be the same people who orchestrated the attacks on Indigo Plateau here in Kanto and Hoenn's own Sootopolis City."_ , exclaimed the news reporter on the TV.

Lance, Cynthia, and Alder were all startled by the change in programming, but they felt a sense of great terror when listening to the anchor on the screen. They took a chance that Rainbow Rocket wouldn't attack so soon after what they had done in Hoenn just a few days earlier, but they were terribly wrong in that matter.

"No… how could we let this happen? I thought they wouldn't do anything so soon after Hoenn… what have we done… ", muttered Lance as he fell back onto the couch.

Cynthia stared at the TV in shock. She had went along with Lance's plan and decided not to contact her G-Men associates about an upcoming Rainbow Rocket threat in Sinnoh, but she now knew that his plan had absolutely backfired. Canalave City was just under attack, and her G-Men agents were probably scrambling to try and locate the threat before they did any more damage in the city or the rest of the region. She hastily opened up her top-of-the-line Poketch model and scrolled down to Bertha of her Elite Four's contact, desperate to talk to her or any other of her Elite Four right then. She clicked on Bertha's icon on the screen and her Poketch immediately entered its video chat mode, with Bertha's face showing up just a few seconds later on the screen.

Cynthia sighed in relief as her colleague's face appeared on the screen, but her face suddenly turned to that sadness."Bertha, is that you? I'm sorry about-"

"Cynthia, don't worry about it. I know it looks bad, but Flint, Lucian, Aaron, and I gave sent in teams of agents to look through Canalave City and surrounding routes for any signs of Rainbow Rocket throughout that area.", Bertha explained.

"I just wish I could have told you and everybody else earlier about sending more agents throughout the region. Maybe we could have stopped this attack before it even happened in the first place.", confessed Cynthia.

"We'll take care of it from here. You just stay still in Kanto and prepare with the other Champions, and don't worry about a thing.", exclaimed Bertha as she hung up from the video call.

Cynthia stared down at her Poketch as Bertha's face disappeared from the video call, sending her back to the contacts menu of her high-tech smartwatch. The Sinnoh Champion sat down on the other couch next to Lance in disappointment and sadness, knowing that she failed badly to protect her very own region.

"Alder, you should go upstairs and make some calls to your Elite Four, and whoever runs the G-Men division in Unova before Rainbow Rocket tries any more funny business over there as well.", instructed Lance.

Alder nodded his head. "You got it. Marshal and the others better be prepared if anything happens there."

"And if you see Diantha upstairs, then tell her to do the same thing to her Elite Four members and agents in Kalos. Every region needs to be prepared now since we now know how quickly Rainbow Rocket can strike in any region.", continued Lance.

Alder nodded in understanding again as he turned away from Lance and Cynthia, and began to walk up the stairs to the second floor of Professor Oak's laboratory. He was spending the day out in town with Mrs. Ketchum and Tracey, trying to provide a sense of community and hope to the still-reeling people of Pallet.

* * *

Lance moved around on his couch until he was lying down across the whole sofa, trying to take up as much room as he could so he could relax while the news anchor was still talking about the attack in Canalave City. He turned to face Cynthia, who had a worried expression on her face as she continued to listen to the news report while Lance grabbed the remote from the coffee table. Cynthia blinked in surprise as the TV was suddenly shut off, and she turned around to see Lance holding the TV remote from his couch while Cynthia stared at him in confusion. Lance put the remote back down on the coffee table silently, and Cynthia was about to grab it for herself until she stopped at the last second.

"Don't bother turning it on again, Cynthia. We already know what happened, and the best thing we can hope for is that these Rainbow Rocket officials that caused this attack will be stopped by your G-Men division and your Elite Four.", exclaimed Lance.

Cynthia nodded her head as she got up from the couch and started to walk upstairs, not wanting to listen to the terror of her people more than she already had in the past few minutes. Lance watched her walk up the stairs slowly, and he looked around the empty living room for a few seconds.

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Hoenn Region - Ever Grande City**_

"Hey, Wallace! How's it going down there?", asked Steven over the phone.

Wallace usually called him often from his home in Sootopolis City to bring updates about the city's recovery and how the people there were faring after the incident with Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, and Steven had gotten used to that over the past couple of days. To his surprise, Wallace responded frantically and with worry instead of staying calm, which scared Steven.

"Steven… you need to see the news. This is on every news channel throughout all six governed regions.", exclaimed Wallace.

Steven's eyes widened in surprise, since he had never heard Wallace sound like this before. "Okay, fine! Give me a second to get the remote."

Steven walked over to his sofa and picked up the remote, clicking the power button as his TV jumped to life. He sat down on the sofa as the TV began showing the channel he had last left it on, quickly changing it to the Eastern Hoenn News Network he often watched on Channel 2. The Hoenn Champion stared at the TV screen, listening to the reporter over the next few seconds as his eyes widened in shock. He didn't expect Rainbow Rocket to strike another target city in a completely different region, much less the western coast of Sinnoh. After tuning out from the news anchor for a second to think for a moment, everything seemed to make sense for Steven. Nobody would expect Rainbow Rocket to try and attack another region only four days removed from their plans with Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, with Maxie and Archie leading the charge in his home region.

That reasoning was probably why Giovanni and his top brass chose to do it right after the attacks in Hoenn, since they probably had enough resources in their massive corporate pool of assets to stage another attack directly after the first one to cause even more confusion and panic, which seemed to work well now.

Steven looked back to the screen sadly. "Wallace… that's terrible. I just wonder what..."

His eyes then shot open in shock, then worry as he stared back at the screen with no words coming out of his open mouth. "Wallace… I… oh, Arceus. Thanks for telling me about this."

"Are you sure? I don't think you sound okay from over the phone. Do you want me to come over and try to help?", asked Wallace.

Steven shook his head in reassuring."No, I'm fine Honestly, I'm all right."

"I have some more phone calls to make anyways."

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 207**_

"Ah, Mars! So I see your first mission as a part of Rainbow Rocket was a success. I saw the smoke from all the way here!", exclaimed Charon as he gazed up from his computer.

"Can it, old man. Can't you see I have anything better to do than talk to you of all people! I need to talk with Master Cyrus right now, so leave me alone!", shouted Mars as she walked away from Charon.

Charon put his hands together gleefully. "Even after a whole year, nothing ever changes! Hehehehe!"

Mars ignored his chuckling as she walked past him and into Cyrus's office in this temporary base near the western side of Mt. Coronet. It would suffice for the missions Master Cyrus had assigned to her, Saturn, and Jupiter over the next few weeks they had in Sinnoh, but it was pretty bad as bases went in her experience. This was like the homeless shelter compared to the mansion that was Rainbow Rocket Headquarters. Mars walked up to the door at the end of the hallway and punched four numbers into its keypad, causing the door to slide open. She walked through the door to see her Master Cyrus sitting on a fairly large desk, his classic stern expression present on his face as he scrolled through files on his monitor.

"Master Cyrus. Our mission in Canalave City was a success. The public and the G-Men here were caught completely off guard by our attacks.", explained Mars.

Cyrus looked up from his computer and nodded. "Very good. I'll make sure to give you more chances later on after Saturn and Jupiter take their turns in their missions in a few days."

"Thank you, Master Cyrus. I'll get to work and send my Grunts back to the barracks for now.", exclaimed Mars as she bowed in front of her leader.

"Good. You are dismissed.", exclaimed Cyrus.

Mars bowed again and walked away from Cyrus's desk, allowing the door to slide open again before exiting through the doorway and away from her boss's office as well. She made her way back into the lobby of the small temporary base until her eyes met Saturn and Jupiter, who were standing right in front of her.

"I saw what you did on the news, Mars. All of Sinnoh is going crazy right now, which means that you did it perfectly. Good job, by the way.", complimented Jupiter.

"I didn't know that a year in prison made you so nice, G3. Maybe all of us have changed as well, and we can use our changes to help make our plans better. It's foolproof!", shouted Saturn.

Jupiter raised an eyebrow at being referred to her old codename. "Maybe a year in prison made you sound mentally insane, Saturn. That sounds much worse than being nice, in my opinion."

The two crossed their arms in frustration, leaving the three commanders in silence. "Oh, get over it, you two. Let's move on to the more important business, which is what are you gonna do to surpass me here?"

"That's a great question, Mars. I would know how, if I got my mission info from Master Cyrus already! I'm in the middle of a serious argument with Jupiter here, and you just go and ignore it like it's nothing? Shame on you!", cried Saturn.

"Okay, Jupiter was right. You are mentally insane.", commented Mars.

Jupiter nodded in agreement. "I'm glad somebody else agrees with me, G1. Now, you need to be silenced before you start spouting more useless philosophy points or some weird emotional speech that blows up in front of you."

"That's what you think, Jupiter. I'll be talking to Master Cyrus now, so you can shut up when I'm gone. How does that sound?", asked Saturn sarcastically.

"You won't need to talk to me at all, since I'll be the one doing the talking for now.", exclaimed Cyrus as he walked out onto the balcony from the second floor of his temporary office, looking down on the three Commanders.

"Mars's first mission with our supply of Grunts was the first of many small tasks we will be completing during our time here in Sinnoh. Our forces were very spread out and inconsistent during the last time we tried to take over the region, so I have devised a plan to equally spread our forces across the whole region.", explained Cyrus.

Mars looked up in awe. "How do you suppose we do that, Master Cyrus?"

"I've created a plan to split up our forces into three separate areas in the region. Mars, you will handle the southwest sector of the region, from the territories north of Canalave down to Twinleaf Town, ending at the western edge of Mt. Coronet.", Cyrus continued as he pulled down a map of the entire region.

"Saturn, you will take the southeast area, from the eastern edge of Mt. Coronet to cities such as Veilstone, Sunyshore, and Pastoria, while Jupiter, you will be assigned to the northern sector of the region, starting with just north of Spear Pillar and leading further north towards Snowpoint City and the northernmost points of all of Sinnoh.", he finished.

"That way, we'll be able to split our Grunts with you three and have an equal amount of force against all our targets. Soon, all of Sinnoh will be under Rainbow Rocket's control, and their measly Elite Four and Champion will have no power to stop us and Giovanni once we're done.", continued Cyrus.

"That's a great idea, Master Cyrus. When do you suppose we get started on these missions then?", asked Jupiter.

"I've already came up with those dates as well. Saturn and Jupiter will be phased out into their respective sectors with their own teams of Grunts over the next few days, while you will stay here, Mars. I will be flying around the region while this is happening, keeping track of all three of you while you're undertaking your missions.", Cyrus added.

"That sounds amazing. I'll get prepared immediately for my next mission, and you should do the same, Jupiter.", exclaimed Saturn in a strangely enthusiastic way.

Jupiter cocked her head towards Saturn. "Didn't need to tell me twice, you know."

She turned away from Cyrus, Saturn, and Mars as she walked back to her office on the right side of the base, and the rest of the Galactic higher-ups soon left the center grounds of the base as well to go back to their offices as they prepared for the next mission in their calendars. Mars pressed a code on her keypad, swinging her office door open as she walked inside and sat in her chair, looking on at her monitors as she waited for something new to come up as she continued to wait for more news. Suddenly, her phone started to ring, and she slid her chair over to the side of the desk where it was lying face down. She picked it up quickly as she turned it over, recognizing the caller ID to be of the lieutenant of her team of Grunts, and pressed the "Answer Call" button on her screen.

Mars brought the phone to her ear. "Hello? Commander Mars speaking."

"Yes, this is Lieutenant Ross of your Grunt division, and I just wanted to ask you what our next orders were. We've cleaned out any surrounding civilians from the streets near the Pokemon Center in Canalave, but what should we do now?", asked the lieutenant.

Mars was silent for a moment. "Keep scouring through the city, lieutenant. If you and your team finds any more people who want to rebel against you, then stop them in their tracks. I'm sure you can handle it."

"Uh… you got it, Commander Mars! My team and I will get ready for this as soon as possible. I'll call you again once I need further orders from you. Bye!", exclaimed Lieutenant Ross.

Mars shrugged to herself as she heard Lieutenant Ross hang up from the phone call, taking the phone off her ear and placing it back on her desk face down. She looked through her computer for a few minutes as she waited for something else to do, looking through stray emails and catching up on the news, which were all mentioning her attack in Canalave City. She scrolled through some uninteresting news articles online until her desk phone started to ring, and she picked that up even quicker than her cell phone, bringing it to her ear with urgency and a mix of boredom as well.

"Mars, I've been given word that your Grunts are still searching through Canalave City for any signs of rebellion there, but I would like to know why. You already delivered our message and your mission by blowing up the Pokemon Center there, but why do you want to crush the whole city? I don't mean to be complaining, but I, as your leader, am just curious.", asked Cyrus.

Mars chuckled to herself as she waited to respond. "It's just a couple hours of extra work for my Grunts, that's all. My ultimate goal is to please you, Master Cyrus, and doing this will ensure that… "

"No one will be there to fight back."

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Veilstone City**_

"Reginald? You might want to see this. It's been running on the news for a few hours while you've been out in the back!", shouted Brandon.

The Pyramid King was facing out towards the back door of his son's house, into the breeding center preserve he always liked to work in during most days. Brandon waited for a few seconds until he saw a silhouette running up to him, with another shadow running alongside him towards the house. Brandon moved aside as Reggie and Maylene both stopped short outside the house, and they stopped to catch their breath as he motioned them to come in silently while the TV was still on, playing the same news report on repeat as the three of them walked inside the house.

"Okay, dad. What's going on anyway?", asked Reggie as he walked inside.

He walked over to his living room and sat down on the couch, focusing his attention to the TV as he listened to the news anchor, with Maylene and Brandon sitting on his side. His face quickly changed once he heard the news anchor talk through the TV screen, changing to that of surprise to shock and horror.

"How… they already moved to Sinnoh? I know it's all the way across the region, but still… this is bad… very bad.", exclaimed Reggie.

"Dear Arceus… Byron… how's he holding up? I would hate to see him die like this… in the absolute worst kind… ", muttered Maylene slowly.

"It's a tragic sight to behold, I know that. But we can't go on and stand around doing nothing like we can't stop this, because we can if we just band together. I've seen my fair share of problems in my life, but I've always tried to fix them by doing my best, and I hope you two can follow that advice as well.", exclaimed Brandon as he crossed his arms.

"Thank you for the advice, but we have a right to be upset. You're right in that both of us will get back on our feet and try to fight back against these attacks, but we have friends in Canalave and in nearby towns that could be in danger, so we're just worried for them, that's all.", Reggie explained.

Brandon looked down to face his son. "That's completely understandable, but I'm just trying to teach you something important. Don't give up right when people need you, instead use that as motivation to win."

"I understand, dad. Let's just change the subject before things get even more awkward around here.", exclaimed Reggie.

"I agree. I'll turn off the TV and everyone can get back to work, and I'll go through the city and try to help cheer everybody up. It's a Gym Leader's responsibility to keep its city's citizens together in times of crisis, after all.", added Maylene.

"Do whatever you feel like, Maylene, because I'm not stopping you. I honestly feel that I don't need to tell you twp anything, since you're already adults and understand all of this perfectly.", explained Brandon.

"Thank you. See you later, Reggie!", she shouted as she ran out of the house.

"That's one nice lady you've met there, son. Once this all ends, give me a call and save the date for the wedding, why won't ya?", joked Brandon.

Reggie's face turned bright red in embarrassment. "Dad… stop that. We may be all right but that doesn't mean you get to torment me like that."

Brandon smirked at his son. "Yeah, sure… but I'm still your father, and you know that."

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Canalave City**_

"Misty? Guys? Where are you!", shouted Ash, his hands cupped around his mouth.

He had been searching for his friends for a while now through the burnt and collapsed wreckage of the city's Pokemon Center, trying to find and help out any survivors who were still in the building along the way. So far, he had helped out a few civilians escape from the rubble, but none of his friends were in his sight yet.

"Hello? Come on, guys, answer me already!", exclaimed Ash angrily, starting to get worried that he might not find his friends here at all.

He continued to walk through the Pokemon Center, observing the singed floors and walls and the destroyed ceiling that had created more obstacles in Ash's way for him to conquer if he ever had a chance at finding his friends in the rest of the rubble. Ash stepped out of the way of every piece of rubble that stood in his way as he kept searching for everybody else, until he noticed a group of people huddling up from under a collapsed piece of the ceiling. He ran over to them and helped them get out from under the rubble, and he went on his way to keep looking for his friends.

"Hey, guys! Come on out already, will ya?", he shouted into the distance, hoping that the others would hear.

After delivering his final message, Ash sat down in disappointment, taking a short break as he waited for his energy to recharge and his mojo to get back up to its usual levels. He needed to find his friends, and soon unless Mars decided to strike again without warning.

* * *

Ritchie's ears perked up as he heard a noise, and he lifted himself up from his knees to try and sense the source of the sound. He looked around his surroundings, which consisted of the wrecked Canalave Pokemon Center, while Dawn and Iris were staring at him weirdly.

"Hey, man, are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost or something!", asked Iris.

Ritchie turned around to face them. "No, I'm fine. It's just that I thought I heard Ash's voice yell something from pretty far away."

"Maybe we should go around and look for them. We haven't found anybody else since that big explosion, and maybe Ash and the others are looking for us while we're still here.", explained Dawn.

"That sounds great! Maybe everyone else has already been found, and we all can get out of this wrecked place as soon as possible with Ash and the others in tow.", added Iris.

"That does sound very tempting, but I'm not sure if we should go out just yet. There could be more of who or what attacked us back there and sent up that huge flare of smoke while almost completely destroying this building. It could be unsafe to leave this place, since we could get caught again." Ritchie explained.

"Come on, Ritchie. We at least have to try!", shouted Iris.

Ritchie thought to himself. "I don't know… but fine. Let's get going, then."

"Wait a second!", shouted a voice from behind them, causing the three to turn around in shock at the voice.

Leaf and Gary ran up from behind them and stopped once they were in front of Ritchie, Iris, and Dawn, and greeted them with hugs and high-fives as they embraced in front of the rubble and wreckage of the Pokemon Center.

"Oh, man! It's great to see you two after what happened. How did you make it out?", asked Ritchie.

"Well, I kinda got rescued by Leaf when the whole pillar of smoke went up by the entrance. She ran over and picked me up when all of you got sent flying, and we ran out to the other side. We've been helping out other people who've been lost or hurt, but thank Arceus none of them bothered to notice our identities.", whispered Gary.

"That must have been really exciting! Now, we should probably get going and find everybody else, unless they're all looking for us instead.", Dawn explained.

"Sounds good to me. We should stay here for a couple more minutes to review our game plan before we head out through the Pokemon Center again to look for the others, just so we all know what to do.", exclaimed Leaf.

Dawn grinned. "All right. Let's get to work!"

* * *

"Ash! Over here!", shouted a high-pitched voice to Ash's right.

Ash immediately perked up as he heard Misty's voice ring through his ears, and he ran to his right to try and meet up with her voice, picking up speed with each passing second. Eventually, he saw Misty, Brock, Paul, and most of the others lined up to greet him as he ran towards them in relief.

"Great to see you guys!", exclaimed Ash as he was wrapped in a bear hug by Misty and soon after, everybody else.

"We could all say the same to you, Ash. We all escaped together once that pillar of smoke set up and the place started to collapse, but we didn't see you anywhere as we were running away. What happened to you back there?", asked Cilan.

Ash started to get serious as he prepared his response. "Once the smoke cleared, I saw Mars from Team Galactic with a whole bunch of Rainbow Rocket Grunts right in my face. I was alone against a whole team of trained soldiers, and I had to fight to protect everyone else and all of you to at least stall for time as you could escape.

Brock's eyes widened in shock. "Mars was here? Are you kidding me?

"Yeah, but she's supposedly now part of Rainbow Rocket. If that's true, then you don't think… ", muttered Ash under his breath.

"Oh, Arceus… if those two are also going to be involved, then we're in deep trouble over the next few days.", exclaimed Brock, putting his head in his hands.

"So I managed to hold my own against an army of her Grunts and their Golbat, but I used up most of my Aura energy for a finishing attack that caused them to retreat. I don't know where they went, but they're definitely not still in the Pokemon Center.", finished Ash.

"So they still could be wreaking havoc on the rest of the city… and we would have no idea because we were stuck in here for so long… that's terrible… ", murmured Zoey quietly.

"Either way, we need to get out of here. Gary, Leaf, Iris, Dawn, and Ritchie are still missing, so we need to find them before they potentially get in trouble as well. Let's go!", exclaimed Barry as he ran off.

"You heard him. Let's move out!", exclaimed Paul as he ran after him quickly.

The others reacted fast as well, chasing after the two Sinnohan Trainers as they made their way through the partially-wrecked hallways of the Pokemon Center, desperately trying to find the five missing group members so that their team would be complete again, and that they could fight back as a full team against Rainbow Rocket here in the city. The group stopped short once they saw Barry run past a corner and heard the sound of his shoes skidding against the now-singed marble floor, and him eventually slamming into a wall, which they all winced at. After a few seconds of silence, Barry ran back past the corner and towards the rest of the group, a relieved expression on his face.

"Hey, guys! I found them!", he shouted enthusiastically.

A huge wave of relief and happiness overcame the thirteen other teenagers standing behind Barry, and they all eventually fell to the cheerful mood as they all went over to greet Dawn, Iris, Gary, Leaf, and Ritchie and embrace them after a few hours of being separated.

"Iris! You're all right!", exclaimed Cilan as he ran past Barry and wrapped Iris in a hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Now put me down, will ya?", she asked, still being hugged by the relieved Pokemon Connoisseur.

"Hey, you guys! How was the workout?", snarked Dawn jokingly as she walked over to the group.

"Funny you should even ask, Dawn. I don't even feel tired at all!", exclaimed Paul.

Kenny stared at him weirdly as he tried to make small talk with Dawn. What was that arrogant Trainer thinking, flirting with Dawn like that? He wouldn't intervene now, since they had to get out of the city first. But after that, he would definitely give him a talking-to about this.

Dawn shrugged jokingly. "Whatever, Paul. Now let's get out of here before something else goes wrong out here."

"I second that! We need to leave before Rainbow Rocket causes even more trouble than they have out in the city streets.", exclaimed Ritchie.

"All right then. Let's get going!", chirped Ash as he started to run towards the exit.

The rest of the group followed after Ash as they ran back through the hallways of the singed and half-collapsed Pokemon Center, trying to find their way to the entrance lobby so they could get out of the building and stop Rainbow Rocket from causing more trouble in the city streets of Canalave.

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

"Hello? This is Cynthia speaking.", exclaimed the Sinnoh Champion through her Poketch phone.

She heard a pause on the line. "Hey-Cynthia? Is that you?", asked the unmistakable voice of Steven Stone.

"Steven? Yes, it's me. Why would you call this number if you didn't know who I am?", asked Cynthia in confusion.

"No, it's just that… I heard about what happened in Canalave, and I wanted to see if you were okay. That's all.", exclaimed Steven through the phone.

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. "Thanks for asking, Steven. I'm sad… I really am… but the only thing I can do is keep leading my region without any sign of weakness, and I'm going to do that for as long as I can right now."

"That's great, Cynthia. Keep doing what you do best. I was just calling you to say that… I'm here whenever you need someone to talk to. Just give me a call whenever you need help, and I'll be glad to answer and help out.", explained Steven.

Cynthia put her Poketch away from her ear, her eyes starting to tear up at Steven's response. She hadn't really felt this sort of comfort from anyone else in her life besides her grandmother and her sister, and hearing it from Steven of all people felt… strangely comforting as well.

"Well, I… Thank you, Steven. You seem genuinely nice for a change, which I truly appreciate. I'll be sure to give you a call whenever I need to.", Cynthia added.

"You're welcome, Cynthia. That's all I really wanted to say, so… see you around!", exclaimed Steven through the phone.

Cynthia smiled to herself as she held her Poketch up to her ear. Steven was being so nice and generous with his call, but she wasn't sure if he was really being truthful enough. Either way, she would give it a try and call him when she needed support, and she just had to wait and see what would happen later on to know truly what was going on with her colleague.

"No problem, Steven. See you later, I guess… ", muttered Cynthia.

"Hey, Lance. So I see the hockey game went well?", asked Cynthia, noticing the Indigo Champion walking up the stairs from the living room.

Lance shrugged. "Yeah, it was postponed another few months because of the stuff that happened today. What about you?"

"Well, I feel a lot better after talking to a few friends who promised to help me out, including a few colleagues. Don't worry about me, since I have people ready to help me out if I ever need it.", explained Cynthia.

"Sounds good to me. I'll get back to work in a few minutes, but I'm happy you're all right. It's always nice to see a fellow Champion back on her feet.", Lance commented.

Cynthia smiled. "All right. I'll take another hour or so on break, then you can expect me back at my desk by then."

Lance nodded as he walked back to his desk. "So I was right about Steven after all… good for him. He did what no other man could do… "

Cynthia stared at Lance weirdly, as she could have sworn she heard a faint whisper coming out of his mouth. Eventually, she just dismissed it as her thinking about it too much as she walked downstairs towards the living room, where she saw Professor Oak, Tracey, and Mrs. Ketchum already sitting there on the couches.

"Oh, good afternoon, Cynthia! We just came back from the town square, but you're more than welcome to come downstairs and relax with us!", exclaimed Delia enthusiastically.

"No, I'm all right. I'll just stay upstairs and get back to work… It's okay. I'll be fine.", explained Cynthia as she backed away slowly into the stairway.

Delia was about to speak, but Professor Oak interrupted her. "Oh, let her be, Delia. She's in a fragile emotional state at the moment, having to deal with her home region being attacked and all."

"Well, thanks, Professor Oak. I guess I'll be going back upstairs now, so enjoy the rest of your day!", commented Cynthia as she walked up the stairs slowly.

Delia looked at the stairway with sadness and disappointment on her face, until Samuel and Tracey walked up to her sides, and she sat down on the couch while the professor and his assistant sat on the other two couches as they waited for the first person to go ahead and talk first.

"Listen, Delia, you shouldn't get all hung up over this. Cynthia's the leader and the best trainer in the whole Sinnoh region, and now one of her most populous cities was just under fire by Giovanni and his goons, leaving it burning to ashes. You've got to have some alone time after something like that happens to one of your cities.", Professor Oak explained.

Delia turned around to face her former mentor. "I know that, Samuel. It's just that I thought it would be all right if we could be with her, or try to cheer her up after what happened to her cities in Sinnoh."

"It's fine, Mrs. Ketchum. Cynthia probably needs some time to herself for a few more hours or so, but I guarantee that soon enough she'll be back to her usual self. It's not your fault, so don't worry about it!", added Tracey.

"You two both have a point… but I didn't expect her to leave immediately after we showed up. Does she not want us around her or something?", Delia asked.

"Delia, she just needs time. We all needed time to recover after Ash and Gary… passed, and she needs time to mourn the losses of her people and concentrate on what to do next for her region.", explained Professor Oak.

Delia raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you think about it that way, it does make sense… "

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Canalave City**_

"Come on, everybody! PUSH!", cried Ash.

His hands were between the two sliding doors of the Pokemon Center's front entrance, and him along with everybody else was gripping both doors and trying to push them out enough so that it would be wide enough for them to get out.

"We're trying, Ash! It doesn't seem to be working, and that's the problem!", shouted Max.

"Wait a minute. Why doesn't someone just use their Pokemon to break the door clean apart?", Dawn asked.

"Step aside, Ashy-boy, I got this.", exclaimed Gary. "Golem, use Rock Blast!"

Gary's Golem fired off a stream of rocks to the door as the others cleared away, and once the smoke cleared, there was a large gap of burnt and broken metal wide enough for all of the group to successfully fit through.

"You see? Now let's get outta here!", Gary added as he raced through the gap between the doors.

The group noticed the hole that Gary had ran out of and subsequently chased after him, exiting the Pokemon Center for the first time all morning and trying to catch up with the speedy Pokemon Researcher as they made their way through the city streets. What they saw didn't exactly make them comfortable in the port town. The city streets were completely empty, and there still seemed to be a few Golbat patrolling the area, and they could have sworn they saw some shady figures on the roof observing the empty city by themselves. They finally noticed Gary standing at the corner of a large four-way intersection, but he was sitting on the curb and watching the others run towards him, relief clearly present on all of their faces as they stopped next to him.

"Gary, why didn't you wait for us once you ran out of there? You could have stopped and then we could have ran out together and tried to figure out what's going on out here!", asked Leaf.

Gary shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm not even sure myself, but I was just so anxious to get out of the Pokemon Center and figure out what's happening here in the streets so I just ran off by myself. Must be my researcher instincts kicking in again."

Drew raised an eyebrow. " It didn't seem like that to me. You just raced out of there like you didn't see any of us back at the door, and it was almost like you were deliberately ignoring us just to see what was going on out there and how to stop it."

"Listen, guys. All that matters is that we're all together right here, and that's great. I don't know what came over me, but now we should all focus on what happened out here and why this place is completely empty.", Gary explained.

"Gary's right. We need to look through the city, and make sure we know what's up with everyone here and why there's a bunch of Golbat patrolling the city as we speak.", exclaimed Leaf.

She was pointing up in front of her, where a few Golbat were flying above the block running in front of her, avoiding the power lines and traffic lights and scouring the area for any signs of people still out in the streets below them.

"They're coming here! Move!", exclaimed Dawn as she ran behind a bush that was near the curb.

The others followed her lead and tried to find some cover as the Golbat flew right past them over the four-way intersection, not noticing the nineteen other people hiding in bushes to their right as they looked at the street under them, only able to see a Pidgey-eye-view of the city from their standpoint.

"Are they gone yet, Dawn?", asked May, still hiding behind one of the bushes.

Dawn turned around and nodded. "Yeah, we're clear for now."

"All right. Now we should move out slowly so they don't notice that we're here.", whispered Ash as he got up from his bush.

The group slowly rose back to their feet and started making their way to the other side of the intersection from where the Golbat were flying, and they walked ever so slowly and quietly that the Golbat didn't notice their footsteps or their whispering from their place across the intersection.

Kenny tensed up as he walked slowly. "I sure hope they don't notice us-"

The others heard the sound of a bottle being crushed under someone's foot, and they all turned to see Kenny and the crushed soda bottle under his right foot, and they winced as they heard the Golbat talk to each other, their sounds getting closer by the seconds.

"They're coming over! What do we do?", asked May.

Leaf turned to face her friends, a determined expression on her face as she clenched her fists in anger while watching the Golbat fly closer to her and the group.

"We fight."

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 207**_

"Mars? There's a 'James Ross' on line 4 for you. Do you want me to transfer the call over?", asked a Grunt at the door.

Mars looked up from the computer to see a Rainbow Rocket Grunt at the entrance to her office, waiting patiently for her to answer back to her. She looked back to her computer to think to himself about what to do, before putting her head up above her monitor once again.

"Sure, just do it now. I guess I need to talk to him anyway.", she explained.

The Grunt nodded her head and took a step out of her office.. "Yes, Commander. I'll put him on your line right away."

Mars waited a few seconds to check some more emails and texts on her phone, until her office phone started to ring. She put the phone to her ear, expecting to hear her top subordinate dully report the hour's latest events to her, but she was in for a surprise.

"Commander Mars! Boy, have I got something to report to you!", exclaimed Lieutenant Ross enthusiastically.

Mars rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "Yeah? Then just go ahead and say it already."

"Well, our Golbat did a scan of the southwest section of the city, near the Pokemon Center that we all blew up, and found nobody out in the streets instead of a small group of about twenty people.", he exclaimed.

Mars perked up, her eyes widening in interest. "Really. Describe them for me, will ya?"

"We also spotted them running through the streets, and we managed to take a photo of them using those extra-zoom cameras you gave us. I'll send it to your cell phone right now, so just give it a minute.", he commented.

Mars waited silently as she picked up her cell phone and waited even more for the sound of her texting app registering a notification, and after a few seconds the tune came out of the phone's speakers. She opened the text app and clicked on the image Lieutenant Ross had sent her, and she gasped in shock. He was right in saying that there were a group of people standing in the city streets, and she zoomed in further to get a closer look. While they all looked fairly young in age, three people out of the group really stood out to her even from the photo. There was a girl with blue hair and two boys with brown and black hair respectively, but their hairstyles had not changed from the last time Mars had encountered them. She had heard that those three brats and their friends had died from an attack on the Indigo Plateau in Kanto by Rainbow Rocket, but they were obviously still alive and well according to this picture.

"So? What do you think?", asked Lieutenant Ross over the phone.

Mars breathed in slowly to collect herself. "I recognize some of them… they're a dangerous group of people, but I'm sure you have enough people to outnumber them. You have more forces throughout the city than what we brought into the Pokemon Center, right?"

"I do, ma'am. They're all spread out throughout the city, but surely you could lend a hand, since you've claimed how dangerous they can be. We should take every precaution necessary to prevent them from getting out of our clutches.

Mars raised an eyebrow. "I'll fly by the area to see how things go, and I'll consider joining in the battle only if you can't do your jobs. I'll be there in approximately thirty minutes."

"All right. See ya soon!", exclaimed Lieutenant Ross.

* * *

 _ **January 2, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Canalave City**_

"Empoleon, use Hydro Cannon!", commanded Barry frantically.

His Empoleon charged a sphere of pure hydro energy that it then fired on a group of charging Golbat, which collapsed to the ground after the powerful attack had hit them head-on. The other Golbat looked on at their fallen brothers, which gave the others time to unleash their Pokemon's attacks on the other Golbat.

"There's just so many waves of them! We can't stay here for much longer if we're just gonna keep getting surrounded by Golbat!", cried Zoey, while her Gallade used Psycho Cut on another set of Golbat in front of her.

Clemont looked up at the nearest building to him and gasped in horror. "There's Rainbow Rocket men up there! We need to move, now!"

Leaf opened up a map on her X-Transceiver, examining it as she ran behind a bush to think for a moment. She saw a shining landmark on the map, which she clicked and read the description of. She grinned at what she was reading, as she and her friends might have just found their way out of this half-destroyed city.

"Guys! Follow me and get away from these creeps!", exclaimed Leaf as she ran out from behind the bush, looking at her map for directions.

"You heard her, everybody. Let's go!", shouted Ash as he followed her.

The others all understood Ash and Leaf's message and they chased after them, running far away from the befuddled Rainbow Rocket Grunts and their Golbat as the Grunts looked down at them in confusion from the top of some nearby buildings.

"What do ya suppose is going on down there?", asked a Grunt to his comrades.

A female Grunt shrugged. "I have no idea, but we're still getting paid to stop them anyway."

"Come on, people! Get on your Pokemon and chase those kids down! We can't risk them getting away again!", exclaimed Lieutenant Ross frantically.

The nearby Grunts turned to him and got on their flying Pokemon such as Staraptor, Fearow, Pidgeot, and Swellow, riding on them in the direction of where those meddling teenagers had ran off to. Their many Golbat flew alongside the Grunts as they flew above the city streets, trying to spot those kids until it was too late for them.

Leaf looked up at a sign and sighed in relief while still running. "In here, everyone! We can get out of the city from here!"

She ran close enough to the building so that the automatic doors swung open, and Leaf continued to run straight through the doorway and into the entrance hall, with the escalators going down underground right next to her. The others eventually made their way inside of the building, and the automatic doors swung shut when everybody had made it inside.

"What even is this place? Some kind of underground office building?", Max asked while looking around.

"According to my map, it's the Canalave City transit station. It usually takes trains to other cities in the region such as Jubilife City and Eterna City, and so we could catch a train out of here right now.", explained Leaf.

"That's right! I remember hearing about this being built when I was in Johto, and it was brand new around a year ago. This is great!", exclaimed Dawn.

Brock shook his head nervously. "The only thing wrong is that there might not be any trains in service right now, especially after the attacks here, nor could there be any leftover trains here in the station."

"We at least have to try, Brock. This could be our best chance of escaping from the city, so we have to give it a shot.", Serena encouraged.

"Fine. Let's head downstairs, and don't even think about standing on the escalator. We're in a big rush here.", Brock commented as he ran over to the escalators.

* * *

"Come on, guys! Run!", exclaimed Gary as he jumped off the escalator to get a running start on the ground.

He was noticing the slightly relaxed maneuvers of the rest of his friends and was trying to encourage them to move faster, since they didn't exactly have all the time in the world to walk to a train if Rainbow Rocket soldiers were right on their tails in the city streets, trying to pinpoint their exact location.

Barry jumped off the escalator about five stairs up and landed with a roll. "All right, Gary! We're coming already!"

"I didn't mean it like that, but it works.", muttered Gary. "Hey, Leaf! Are there any open trains around here that we can take?"

Leaf turned back to face him. "Yeah, I see one at the other end of the right track!"

"All right. Let's move, guys!", exclaimed Gary as he motioned his hands toward the track Leaf had mentioned.

The group of people that were behind Gary all ran off the escalator, towards Leaf and the rest of their friends as they ran on the stone floors towards the trains in the distance. Gary watched them catch up and breathed a slight sigh in relief, as they could finally get out of here on time. Kenny was running behind Zoey and Barry in the back of the entire group, but he stopped short once he heard something make a sound to his right. He turned to the right to see what was going on, and he saw the 'down' arrow on the elevator shine red as it beeped, signaling that the elevator was going down to this level.

He backed away slowly but still stood near the elevator, too scared to completely run away. "Uh, guys… there's something going on down here!"

Gary stopped short and noticed Kenny, who was still standing directly in front of the elevator motionless as the doors started to swing open. "Get out of there, man! Now!"

Kenny kept watching as the doors swung open, revealing a cavalcade of Rainbow Rocket Grunts and their Golbat as they looked at him menacingly through the elevator doorway, walking out slowly and intimidatingly as he stood there, petrified in fear.

"There's Grunts in the elevators! RUN!", shouted Gary.

He ran as fast as he could in the dim light back to Kenny, picked him up over his shoulders, and ran back a safe distance until he dropped him back on his feet. The Grunts were still approaching him and the other people in the back, and they all ran for their lives as the Golbat started to fire off attacks in their direction.

"There's no time to fight back, guys! We have to run!", shouted Gary, noticing his friends standing in front of the Grunts and holding their Pokeballs determinedly.

He watched Kenny and Zoey put their Pokeballs away quickly, turn around, and run in the other direction past him and towards people like Ash and Leaf in the front of the group. Gary saw them move ahead and decided to pick up some speed, making sure to go in the dim-lit areas so that the Grunts wouldn't see him as well if he was in the lit areas of the track.

"Guys! You've got to get here now!", shouted Ash from the other end of the track as the people in the back continued to run away from the Grunts.

* * *

Misty was running in front of Gary near the left side of the platform where the tracks were, and she saw the back of a train right in front of her, with Ash, Leaf, and a few others struggling to open the doors to the front car as the Grunts continued to give chase.

"What the-there's more of them! More Grunts coming from the elevators!", yelled Zoey from behind her.

Misty took a second to turn around and look at the situation behind her, and she saw more and more Rainbow Rocket Grunts piling out of the elevators and giving chase with their Pokemon and their own feet towards them as they ran towards the distant train. She continued to run with all her strength, making sure to add some of her Aura to her legs to gain more endurance and pull away from the Grunts while they continued to run after her and her friends, growing in numbers with each passing second.

Misty stopped to relax as she made it to Ash and some of her friends. "I made it… what's going on here anyway?"

"We managed to open the doors to the train car here, but Leaf and Clemont can't figure out how to jump-start the train from here. How's everything going on back there?", asked Ash.

Misty looked back at the chaos in front of her sadly. "It looks like more and more Grunts are piling out of the elevators with every second, and Gary and the others are getting trapped back there, so they need to get here to stay safe."

Ash nodded grimly. "How about I get inside the train and help out Leaf, Clemont, May, and Drew with getting the train to work while you make sure everybody else gets inside the train safely."

"You got it, Ash!", Misty exclaimed, hugging him for encouragement.

* * *

Gary stared at Leaf determinedly. "Is everyone here on the train? And can Clemont finally start this thing once and for all?"

"Yeah, everyone managed to make it on, but we're surrounded by the Grunts on all sides. They're… just standing there on the platform, though… and they haven't tried to go after us in here in the past few minutes.", explained Leaf.

"Okay. I'll check on Clemont and the others to see if this thing can work.", commented Gary as pointed towards the driver's car.

"And I'll head out towards the seats to make sure the others are okay.", added Leaf as she ran towards the back of the train.

Gary smiled to himself as he turned in the other direction and ran into the driver's car, where Clemont was on his knees trying to get the train up and running as he fiddled with some wires and buttons on the train's dashboard.

"Clemont, are you okay? You need any help at all down there?", asked Gary concerningly.

"No, I'm all right… but it's kind of difficult to get this train started up. There's some kind of issue with the transmission and delivery of power to all the motors and wheels, so maybe you should check in the back for any interference while I'm still working on this.", Clemont explained.

Gary nodded. "Leaf and some of the others are handling that back there, while I just decided to hang out here. I wonder how they're doing back there anyway… "

* * *

"Hey, guys! How's everyone doing back here!", exclaimed Leaf, running towards her friends in the nearby seats.

Serena turned to face her. "We're all okay, but some people just need to catch their breath after running away from the Grunts for so long on the platform. How about you, Leaf?"

"I'm fine, but I came down here to check for any interference at the end of the train. The Grunts are acting suspicious, so I was wondering if they're trying to stop us from leaving by wrecking the train.", Leaf explained.

 **BOOM!**

The group winced and dived for cover as the sound of metal bending and breaking filled through their ears, and once the sound stopped they looked through the car doors to see a group of Grunts running towards them, breaking down the car doors as they moved closer towards them.

"Crap! They broke in!", exclaimed Kenny, who was still hiding under a seat.

Leaf moved towards the car door determinedly. "Then we need to push them back out."

"Okay. Quilava, spotlight!", exclaimed Dawn as she sent out her trusty Fire-Type Pokemon.

Quilava emerged from her Poke Ball as Dawn made her move. "Use Flamethrower, now!"

The Volcano Pokemon let loose a stream of fire at the car door, which melted and fell onto the track floor as the Grunts made their way to the car directly in front of the group, with some getting singed by the end of the Flamethrower attack.

"You kids aren't getting away this time! Golbat, use Shadow Ball!", commanded a Grunt as he pointed towards the group.

Golbat fired off its Shadow Ball directly at Dawn, who was still standing in front of the Grunts, but she jumped to dodge the attack as her friends then stood up to cover for her as she moved to the back to recover.

"Take this!", shouted Misty as she threw a Water Sphere attack on the leading Grunts.

The powerful attack caused the Grunts to be pushed back into each other and sending them flying threw the car and into the railing separating that car and the one before it. Misty sighed in relief as she watched the Grunts struggle to get up, but was stopped from doing any more damage to them by Kenny, who was composing himself as he ran towards the Grunts.

"Breloom, use Mach Punch!", Kenny commanded as he sent out his Mushroom Pokemon.

Breloom sent a flurry of punches at the Grunts, which sent some flying through the open car door while others hit the wall right next to the car doorway, knocking themselves out in the process as the other Grunts found themselves on the other end of the other car. Ash then fired two Aura Spheres back-to-back at the pile of Grunts two cars down as Kenny ran back to the group, sending those Grunts flying even further as Breloom tossed the closer unconscious Grunts towards the ones farther away.

"They're on the last car already. It's a pretty small train, so we should throw them out of there so they don't cause any more interference with the train.", explained Ash determinedly.

"Sounds good to me, Ash. Venusaur, use Petal Dance!", commanded Leaf as she sent out her Seed Pokemon to finish the job.

Venusaur sent a flurry of sharp petals at the dogpile of Grunts which caught them up in the petal storm that flew them up into the air and sent them close to being out of the train and onto the metal tracks. While Venusaur was attacking the Grunts, Leaf's X-Transceiver started to ring, and she noticed Gary's caller ID on the screen as she tapped it and brought the device close to her ear.

"Yeah! Go, Venusaur!", shouted May as the Seed Pokemon stood in front of the group, making sure nobody would dare try and come across its trainer and her friends now.

"I think that's all of them… but we should get them off the train first, and that's my job to handle.", exclaimed Ash, charging up double Aura Spheres once again.

Leaf smirked as she faced the group. "I don't think they'll be a problem, but you all might want to hold on. Looks like we're heading to Jubilife City by tomorrow morning, so you don't want to fall off now!"

The group felt the rumblings as the train started to pick up speed and gripped their seats as the train careened out of the station, reaching its top speed as they slowly became adjusted to the high speeds of the bullet train. Ash leaned forward in his seat and noticed that all of the Grunts in front of him had all fallen out of the car door they had melted to break into the train in the first place, and the tunnel changed to the orange sky of a Sinnoh sunset as the train left the dark and made its way east towards Jubilife City.

* * *

"Ugh! Why doesn't this stupid elevator go any faster! I need to get down to the ground level, and the escalators were already being used by those foolish kids!", raged Mars as she paced around in the elevator.

Eventually, the doors slid open to reveal a massacre on the platforms. Dozens of her Grunts were scattered all across the ground, and there were even a few of them on the tracks themselves, struggling to get up. Mars ran around the scene, baffled to see her Grunts get defeated into such a state of misery and chaos.

Mars noticed Lieutenant Ross leaning up against the wall to her right, his leg twisted in an awkward position as he was gasping for air and trying his best to stay unconscious as she ran over to him.

"Lieutenant Ross? What exactly happened here?!", she shouted in his face.

The lieutenant took a deep breath slowly. "We used the entrance across the street like you said we should… and we saw those kids getting onto a train… my Grunts tried to get them, and some even got onto the train, but the kids must have jump-started the thing and sent them flying out… "

"As for my fellow Grunts here and I… we were attacked by some kind of blue blur after those soldiers went inside the train… and it must have hit me so hard in the leg that I think it's broken or something.", he finished.

"So, did they get away or not?", Mars asked nervously.

Lieutenant Ross braced for the inevitable. "Yeah… the last thing I saw of them was the train starting up and getting out of here at top speed… I'm sorry I failed you, boss… we did the best we could… "

Mars's vision almost went white as she tried to control her anger. Those stupid kids had gotten away from her. Again. She had failed in her first big mission for Rainbow Rocket as well.

But worst of all, she had failed to please Master Cyrus.

And for her, that was the worst crime of all.

* * *

And Chapter 21 is officially finished! I've been thinking about implementing a special schedule to get new chapter up every 2 weeks now just to ease the workload for me each day, and I hope to start that with the upload of this chapter. The Sinnoh saga's just getting started, so stay tuned for more!

As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	22. XXI - All That Glitters is Gold

**Chapter 22 has arrived! It's been a long two weeks, but this chapter is finally uploaded for all of you to see. I hope you enjoy this latest chapter and the rest of the story as well!**

 **Here's two more review responses, and then we'll get started.**

 **Guest: Thanks for the positive review, and I'm glad you're enjoying the way I develop the characters in this story. I feel like I do a good job in that department, but other people seem to enjoy it as well, and I'm happy about that.**

 **Kishinaract: Thanks for another great review! I'm so happy people enjoy this story that just started out as a passion project for me, and you always give me the motivation to keep on writing.**

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Unknown Location.**_

" _And in other news, a Sinnoh train has crashed into the Jubilife City transit station yesterday morning, which was running there from Canalave City in the west. You may remember that name from only two days ago, when its Pokemon Center was blown up in an attack by the same people who've wrecked the Indigo Plateau, so these criminals are still at large."_ , explained the news anchor on the TV.

" _The train crashed into Track 2 of the Jubilife City Transit Station at around 10:30 AM yesterday, and once the police made it onto the scene they couldn't find anybody left on any of the cars. Was it a ghost crash meant to put the region in peril once again, or was it civilians piloting the trains so they could escape the chaos in the west? Stay tuned for more, after the break."_ , she finished.

"Oh, what a shame. Wasn't Canalave City the place with the Steel-type Gym Leader that the twerp challenged back in the day?", Jessie asked boringly.

"I think so. I remember sneaking into the Gym with you two, but his Pokemon threw us out of there like it was nothing!", cried James.

Meowth shrugged. "Dat was so long ago, I can barely remember what happened! But I wonda which one of us crashed that train into Jubilife City, though. The whole place must be going crazy with fear!"

"All these cities are taking me back to our Sinnoh adventures… what a time that was. Wasn't your first Sinnoh contest in Jubilife, Jess?", James asked.

Jessie fumed with anger, with James backing away in fear. "Yes, and I should have won that Contest if it wasn't for that stupid redhead! It's a shame that she died with her twerp friends, but now my Contest abilities reign supreme across the entire world!"

"Jess? You're acting the tiniest bit insane, so you might wanna dial it down a sec.", Meowth commented, in fear of getting in front of Jessie's rage.

"Whatever, Meowth. I've already competed in some unofficial contests in my old disguises for fun over the past month, when I'm not trying to take over the world with you guys anyway.", Jessie explained.

James sat up quickly. "Oh, so that's where you always run off to when Meowth and I go looking for you? I've talked to Bill about it, and he said that Cassidy's always gone at the same time as you, Jessie."

"Cassidy's gone at the same time as me?! Then she must be that Cassandra girl that always seems to hate me on the Contest stage… ", muttered Jessie angrily.

"Seriously? When did Cassidy start enterin' Contests?", Meowth asked.

James shrugged. "She probably saw you doing it and wanted to beat you at your own game. Such is the life of a rival… "

"Well, Botch can support her all he wants. I'll still crush her under my thumb the next chance I get!", Jessie shouted.

"Okay, okay. Why don't we change the subject to something less fiery than Contests!", intervened James loudly as he ran into the conversation.

Jessie calmed down and shrugged. "Whatever, James. I just hope that we don't cause too much trouble in Sinnoh, since if we ever were to get caught all of us would be punished for fifty thousand different war crimes, if the Champions even get their act together in the first place."

"Dat's true. They're all loungin' around in Pallet Town and doing nothin', so I wonder why da boss hasn't targeted it yet as a place to attack. They're all literally in da same town, so what is he waiting for?", asked Meowth.

"Maybe he's just being a little overconfident. Giovanni might think that he's too powerful for any of the Champions to stop him, so he wouldn't even try to stop them since he thinks they won't stop him either.", James answered.

"You know, it does make sense if you say it that way. But if the boss gets too cocky with his decisions, we could end up being face-to-face with all six Champions that actually are ready to take all of Rainbow Rocket down with their combined G-Men forces.", Jessie added.

"And that's the problem. Maybe Giovanni isn't completely heartless and won't destroy all of Pallet Town because the Champions are there, but he needs to deal with them before they become too much of a threat.", exclaimed James.

Suddenly, the trio was interrupted by a loud voice. "What do you mean, 'they're in Pallet Town? How do you three idiots know that?"

Jessie's eyes narrowed as she slowly turned around to face her newest challenger, which had long golden hair that was spiked around her neck. Running up slowly to catch up with her was a shorter man with green hair, and he stopped to catch his breath as Jessie and his partner started to head-to-head.

"Cassidy… you have some nerve showing up here at a time like this… you're going down, you little cheat!", Jessie shouted angrily.

Cassidy smirked evilly, startling her age-old rival. "Well, I'll just take you down first then!"

" _Attention all Grunts, Agents, and Admins in the Johto Division. Please head down to the north hangar in t-minus five minutes. I repeat, if you are a Grunt, Agent, or Admin in the Johto Division, report at the north hangar in t-minus five minutes."_ , exclaimed the voice on the loudspeaker.

Cassidy grinned at a startled Jessie. "Well, looks like it's our cue to leave now! Come on, Ball, we've got to go now!"

As the trio stood and watched Cassidy drag her boneheaded partner alongside her as they walked away from Jessie, James, and Meowth, one shoutd could be heard over Jessie yelling in thin air.

"IT'S BUTCH, I TELL YOU! BUTCH!"

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 203**_

"Oh, great. There's even more articles about us after that stunt we pulled with the bullet train two days ago. It's all online and in the paper.", commented Brock as he scrolled through his Pokegear.

"Yet another thing that could potentially get us spotted and caught. We really need to get better at covering our tracks if we need to keep pulling stunts like this in order to escape from Rainbow Rocket yet.", Gary added.

"That's one problem we can't solve without practice. We were in such a rush to get out of Canalave that we didn't even bother to notice the consequences if we would get caught once we slightly crashed into Jubilife City, and remember. We barely managed to get out of there without the cops catching us as well.", Leaf explained.

Ash walked over to the conversation. "Then we have to start doing that, then. It doesn't seem that hard to figure out when we're in that situation again."

"That's easier said than done, Ash. It's hard to try and get away from Rainbow Rocket, or the media once this is all over, and we need to think of the consequences or drawbacks the next time we steal a bullet train and ride it across part of a region all alone, only to have it crash into another station in the region's biggest city.", Dawn reiterated.

Misty nodded. "Dawn's right, Ash. We just need to think of less reckless ideas before we get caught trying to escape from them and their consequences later on."

"Then now's a good time than ever to start thinking about it with all of us!", shouted May. "If we're going to make decisions about our future, then we'll have to make them together."

"May's right, you know.", Serena added. "We can't all turn to Ash or Leaf to make executive decisions all the time, and the rest of us should be involved with stuff like this as well."

"Fine! Go right ahead with that. I'm perfectly fine with that, so you don't have to worry at all about that.", exclaimed Leaf, her arms crossed in some sort of frustration.

Ash just shrugged as he got up from the tree stump he was sitting on, and the group's conversation resumed as they got back to work talking amongst themselves about upcoming situations that could affect themselves. They soon noticed that they were getting closer to the highway that ran north into Jubilife City and south into Sandgem Town, so they stuck to the nearby trees to try and avoid being seen by some drivers on the road.

"Why are we still crowding around the interstate? The drivers on there could probably spot us if they're looking close enough through the trees here.", Drew commented.

Paul rolled his eyes. "Don't worry so much. There's almost no traffic on the road, so the people in those cars would only focus on going fast there and won't bat an eye at what's going on to their left in the trees."

"All right, we get it. Paul does have a point here, so we're safe from being spotted for now. We can just head out further onto the natural route whenever you want to, but you all have to speak up first.", Leaf added.

She was met with silence as the others continued to talk amongst themselves, expressing their frustration to their friends as Leaf walked alone, browsing her X-Transceiver as she waited for something else to happen to take her mind off this situation.

"Hey, are you all right? I know you want to act like the leader and everything, but you can't make any decision for all of us yourself, you know.", Gary asked as he walked over to her.

Leaf looked up at her old friend. "Listen, Gary. I know everyone wants to work together, and I support that, but it always seems like I need to help them out with the stuff I know and to make sure they're making the right decisions here."

"I know you like to think of us as your agents like when you're doing a mission for the G-Men, but I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we're not people you can just order around like your agents.", Gary commented.

Leaf raised an eyebrow. "We're all practically the same age as you, and Ash and I have known you since forever. It's kind of weird seeing you in such as position of power and using to treat us like you're the captain and we're all new recruits into the armed forces. If you want to leave, then leave. We won't stop you."

Gary was on the verge of tearing up after finishing his explanation, leaving Leaf speechless as she realized the magnitude of her actions that were affecting her friends in such a way. She sat down on the ground to compose herself as the others walked further away, but Gary still waited for her to get back on her feet.

"I know I should let the others do what they want, Gary. I really do. But I just feel like some of them could make some risky decisions, and I want to be there to help them onto the right path.", Leaf confessed.

"But that's only what you think is right. Maybe take a step back today and let everybody else decide what to do for now. How does that sound?", asked Gary.

He held out a hand in front of him in front of Leaf's face, and she looked up to see Gary's outstretched hand ready to help her up as a peace offering. She was breathless as she stared open-mouthed at her old friend, who just grinned slightly as his hand still remained in front of Leaf.

Leaf's stare soon turned into a bright smile as she grabbed his hand tightly and pulled herself up onto her feet quickly, but forgetting to stop herself as she accidentally ran into his arms. Gary brought his arms around her in an effort to support her from falling over on him, but it resulted in an awkward hug for the both of them.

Gary and Leaf both blushed as they kept their arms around each other for a few more seconds, the silence stretching out as unspoken words reigned supreme for both of them at the moment.

"Thanks, Gary. I'll try to keep that in mind for next time.", smiled Leaf quietly.

Gary returned the smile with a big grin of his own. "Glad I could help."

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Unknown Location.**_

" _Attention, all recruits in the Johto Division. Please report to the north hangar right now, or else you will not be taking part in today's mission. If you wish to participate in today's affairs, then please report to the hangar by oh-eleven-hundred hours."_ , exclaimed the autonomous PA system.

"All right… just give me a sec… ", muttered Ariana as she scrolled quickly through some emails on her computer.

She clicked on a large portion of text, copied it, and pasted it into another document from her private email address. She then looked through her email, deleting some sections and adding some more, before entering the address she wanted to send this long email to. After looking through her work one last time, Ariana pressed the Send button quickly, waiting patiently yet worriedly for it to completely send. Once the email was successfully sent, she turned off her laptop and raced out of her office, running through the halls towards the north hangar of the base.

She held a tight face as she ran through the halls. "I sure hope this works. Lance, if you get this email, then good luck out west."

She burst through the hangar's front doors and ran towards the crowd of Grunts and officers that stood near the helicopters nearby inside the hangar. She stopped herself and started to listen to Proton's mission briefing, but he saw her arrive late as he was speaking.

"So glad you could finally join us, Ariana. Were you 'running late' with some more 'business errands'? Come on, you can tell us!", mocked Proton.

"For your information, I was just finalizing my mission preparations before I arrived here, and I was just running late. Don't get so high up there, since you could just fall off the edge.", she fired back.

Proton grinned at the sight of a challenge. "Trying to get feisty, are you? If you keep this up then you could just join Petrel with those Champion losers just north of here in their jail cells, if that's what you want anyways."

"I've heard the rumors, but you can just get on that helicopter right now. My Grunts have better things to do than to listen to you speak.", Proton finished, waving her off towards a chopper.

Ariana walked off slowly towards the helicopter, her head facing the ground as she opened the door and walked inside, where she found her small team of loyal Grunts by her side as she made her way to the cockpit. She sat down in the pilot's chair and started to prepare for takeoff, wondering of the times where she could finally get out of this place.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

A tiny beep rang in Lance's ears as his eyes turned back to his computer screen, his email app registering a new notification as he opened the app to check who else decided to email him at this time. He scrolled up to his newest unread message once the app opened, and his jaw fell down in shock as he registered what he was seeing. A detailed report from Rainbow Rocket headquarters explaining exactly what they were going to do today, and where they were going to strike next.

"What the… what does Ho-Oh have to do with any of this?", he muttered as he continued to read the rest of the email.

His heart stopped once he got to the end of the email, where he saw a name that usually terrified him and made him stop in his tracks when it was uttered into his ear. Ariana of Team Rocket was one of the fiercest and most ruthless enemies he had ever faced in his life, but why was she sending important information about their missions to him, of all people? Lance knew she was obviously committing treason by doing this, but the question was if she was getting caught for it or not. He knew that this could be a gigantic plot to confuse him and the other Champions while Giovanni directed his troops somewhere else, but this was too big of an opportunity for him to dismiss and brush off.

He had to take a chance right now, and this was the perfect time to do it. He ran out of his chair and towards the other Champions, who looked on in confusion as he stood on a lounge cube to face them.

"Change of plans, guys. We're going to Johto."

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Sandgem Town**_

"What a nice little town down there!", exclaimed Iris from the cliff edge. "I know we're in southwest Sinnoh, but where exactly is this place anyway?"

She was standing on a cliff edge overlooking a small town filled with houses and a paved road running through the middle of it that curved north onto Route 203, where they had just been walking through. A large building was set near the middle of the town and right next to the road, with a wind turbine standing right next to it as well.

"I think that's Sandgem Town, and so the road running through it must be the same road that goes from Twinleaf all the way through to Jubilife City. We're definitely on the right track here.", Brock answered.

"Oh yeah! I think that's where you and I met in Sinnoh for the first time after you went back home after the Battle Frontier, Brock! That was a long day for both of us, wouldn't ya think?", asked Ash.

Brock sweatdropped. "Yeah… I could have had the beautiful Claudina with me on the road… but alas, she was already with somebody else… "

"I think we've had enough of crying for today, everyone. Let's just try to avoid the town and sneak onto the next route without getting caught, shall we?", asked Cilan.

"That sounds fair.", commented Leaf as he walked up to the others.

Barry raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you're gonna actually agree with us this time, huh? When did that personality change happen?"

"I did that when I realized I needed to take a step back and let you guys decide stuff for a bit, so you all can go ahead and make them without me. It's for the best, since I don't want to treat you badly like I was before.", she explained.

"Well, that's a nice change for you and for all of us as a whole. Or did somebody else tell you what to do instead?", teased Dawn.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but let's just get through the town and make sure we don't get caught here for good. We should head out now before it gets close to lunch, and the town's probably be packed by that time.", Leaf added.

"Oh, whatever. Let's just head out already.", Ash exclaimed as he walked ahead of the group towards the stairs that led down the cliff.

"What are we waiting for, guys? Let's go!", shouted Gary as he ran down the stairs after Ash.

The whole group followed Ash and Gary down the stairs as the town still loomed large underneath the cliff, and they hoped they could make their way through the town without getting caught by anyone there, especially the professor who called this town his home.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Kanto Region - Pallet Town**_

"Johto? What are you talking about?", asked Cynthia in confusion.

Lance's eyes narrowed. "I got an email from a Rainbow Rocket employee on the inside, and she sent mission reports to me about their mission for today. They're going to attack Ecruteak City and try to capture Ho-Oh from the Bell Tower there."

"They're trying to capture more Legendary Pokemon? Why would they do that, especially after what happened in the Orange Islands!", Diantha shouted.

"I don't know why, but that's what they're planning on doing.", Lance exclaimed. We need to get there as fast as we can before things get sour over there, and we're going to need all the help we can get."

"Are you gonna call the other Gym Leaders again like what happened on Mt. Quena?", Alder asked. " They could be a big help like last time, and we might be able to fight back against Rainbow Rocket with their help."

Lance nodded. "That's exactly what I was going to ask you to help me out with. We should only call the Johto Gym Leader for this one, but make sure the Leaders in Kanto are on standby for backup if it gets sour up north in Ecruteak."

The Champions soon got to work, grabbing their phones and calling the Johto Gym Leaders, making sure that they were all ready to go as soon as possible before Rainbow Rocket's troops also arrived in Ecruteak City. Once all eight Gym Leaders in Johto were accounted for and ready, they then called their Gym Leaders in Kanto and made sure they were ready to back up if it was necessary.

"All right… is everybody ready?", Lance asked as he walked out of the lab's front door.

Cynthia nodded. "Definitely. Let's go kick some Rainbow Rocket butt out of Johto once and for all."

"Then what are we waiting for?", shouted Lance. "Go, Dragonite!"

He sent out his trusty Dragon Pokemon and got on its back as the fellow Champions sent out their most powerful Pokemon and got ready for the ride northwest towards Ecruteak City. Cynthia was on Garchomp's back, Alder was riding with Volcarona, and Diantha had Teleported with her Gardevoir into the city to secure the borders before the others arrived.

"Let's go, everyone! We can't fail now!", shouted Cynthia as Garchomp took off with her on her back.

Alder laughed. "Right behind you, guys! Let's do this!"

"We can't lose now, so stay strong. We'll win this fight, and stop Rainbow Rocket from destroying this world and its people more than they already have in the past few months. I believe in us, and we will win!", shouted Lance as they took off towards the golden city of Ecruteak.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Sandgem Town**_

"Hey, look at this! Professor Rowan's out of town with a meeting with the Elite Four on the League Island, and his lab's open for people to visit!", Dawn commented as she pointed towards a signpost.

Kenny's eyes widened. "Really? We should check it out right away!"

"Shouldn't we be avoiding that place like the plague right now? We're still on the run, and even Rowan's assistants would probably recognize some of us instantly.", intervened Brock.

"Maybe we should check this one out.", reiterated Barry. "You never know what you can find in Professor Rowan's stash of books, you know."

Ash's brow furrowed. "It still seems risky to me, but it couldn't hurt if we find something interesting that could help us out inside of his lab. I say we do it!"

"Besides, the assistants there will probably only recognize our Pokemon first, but not us as Trainers. All we have to do is put our Pokemon away in our Pokeballs so that they have no idea it's actually us while we walk in with everybody else.", exclaimed Zoey.

The group turned to Leaf instinctively for advice, but she just shrugged passively. "I'm just trying to take a step back here and enjoy my day, so you can go on ahead and make the best decision for all of us as a whole."

"Okay, we get it. You're laying off on the whole boss thing, but we kind of need an equalizer here to set the record straight.", explained Ritchie.

Leaf thought for a few moments. "You can go in if you want, but maybe some of us should stay back outside near the lab so that they can help anyone who's inside if things get dicey inside there."

"You see that? That's some good decision-making right there.", complimented Gary.

Barry shrugged, ignoring Gary's claims as he walked over. "Whatever, Gary. Whoever's going to come with me, let's go!"

Part of the group followed Barry into the main part of town, which included Ash, Misty. Dawn, Barry, May, Max, and a few others as the remaining members of the gang stayed behind and walked over to the Pokemon Center to relax while the others visited the laboratory.

"I don't know what May's thinking, to be honest. Why would she risk getting spotted with everybody else who went with her?, grumbled Drew.

"May seems to want to go, and you should just support that no matter if you want to go there or not, Drew. It's the number one rule of being a boyfriend, you know.", Serena commented as she walked next to him.

Gary nodded in approval. "You do whatever you want, Drew. I'm sure May's gonna be fine, along with everybody else."

"I guess you're right. But we still have to keep our eyes open if anything goes wrong out here.", Drew added as he sat down on a bench.

Paul nodded quietly. "Well, isn't that what we're here for?"

* * *

 _ **January 4. 2003. Johto Region - Ecruteak City**_

"Hey, are you Morty? Lance told me there's a Ghost-type Gym Leader with that name here.", asked Diantha.

She was standing in the first floor of the city's famous Bell Tower, where Ho-Oh used to reside, behind a man in a purple shirt and a purple and black bandanna on his forehead. His golden blonde hair was arranged in small spikes, which matched his concerned expression as he turned around to face the Kalos Champion.

The man sighed. "Yeah, that's me. Lance told me that one of his friends would be coming here before him, so I can assume you're Diantha?"

"Yes, you can. I'm just here to finalize everything before Lance and the others arrive and see if Rainbow Rocket actually goes through with their supposed plans to attack the city.", Diantha explained.

Morty nodded in understanding. "So that's their name, huh?"

"Yes, and Lance says they appear stronger than he's ever seen them, especially because they have the guidance of at least two other former villainous organizations on their side.", she added.

"So what do you guys think they're going to do in the city? I know the Burned Tower's already been out of commission for centuries for summoning Lugia, but if they're just coming here for Ho-Oh… ", mumbled Morty.

Diantha nodded grimly. "I'm afraid that's exactly right. Lance received reports from a high-ranking RR officer that some of their troops were going to raid this city later today in an attempt to lure Ho-Oh back to this tower and capture it into their arsenal."

"They've already captured an Articuno from the Orange Islands, but they've been unsuccessful in capturing Groudon or Kyogre from the Hoenn region as well.", she finished.

"Don't worry that much. We've had a number of people try and lure Ho-Oh back to this tower, and none of them have worked so far. One attempt was almost successful by some weird branch of Team Rocket around… four years ago, but Suicune arrived to protect its master and stopped them in their tracks.", Morty explained.

"I'm sure Suicune will protect Ho-Oh to the very end, but what if that's Rainbow Rocket's angle? If they're trying to capture Ho-Oh, then they could already know that Suicune would come to protect it. They would have two legendary Pokemon that they could catch right here, and that's not good for any of us… ", Diantha argued.

Morty's eyes widened. "It's not just Suicune. Entei and Raikou are all members of that trio of legendary beasts, and they would all arrive of Ho-Oh was being targeted by Rainbow Rocket in that sort of way. That way they would have a chance to grab four Legendary Pokemon with all kinds of different elemental powers… that combined with their firepower could lead to the whole world's downfall… "

Diantha's face changed to a calm expression to one of concern. "If that's true… then we have to win this battle. This could be the turning point in the conflict we've been fighting over the past few months… "

Morty heard the sound of something rushing through the wind, and he perked up as he ran past Diantha and outside of the Bell Tower. He stopped at the bridge gate which led into the main section of the city, where he saw three other figures step down off their Pokemon rides.

Diantha rushed after him, and she grinned as she noticed her colleagues return their Pokemon to their Pokeballs and walk across the bridge towards her and Morty. Lance was the first to get there, and he shook Morty's hand tightly as Alder and Cynthia greeted Diantha once more.

"Hey, Lance. Diantha's already told me everything we need to know about this, and I know how serious this is for you guys.", commented Morty as he shook Lance's hand.

"Thanks, man. I can't wait to take them down with you here, if they manage to show up soon enough.", Lance exclaimed, nodding his head in approval.

Cynthia raised an eyebrow as silence overtook the group. "Now that everyone's here, what do we do next?"

Lance stared intensely at the rest of his friends. "Now… "

"We wait."

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Sandgem Town**_

"Welcome, everybody, to this official tour of Professor Rowan's laboratory! Here you can read about his notes on Pokemon evolution, and explore his massive library of books and computers that contain years of his scientific research!", explained one of Professor Rowan's assistants besides the main entrance.

"Now, if you would please follow me into the lab, where you all can be on your way. I'm sure Professor Rowan would love people to see why he is so famous as a researcher across the whole Sinnoh Region!", added another assistant on the other side of the front doors.

Misty rolled her eyes as she walked next to Ash. "Don't you think they're… acting a little too overenthusiastic?"

"I don't really know, Mist. Let's just see how everything works out once we're actually inside, and then we can see what's up inside the lab.", reassured Ash.

"I guess you're right, but aren't you the least bit worried? This could be a massive trap designed to lure us all in, and the others could get caught into this as well.", Misty added.

"Oh, come on, you guys! It'll be fun here!", exclaimed May cheerfully.

Ash shrugged and turned back to Misty. "We can go look together, if you don't want to be scared by all of this."

Misty blushed and leaned in close to Ash, who just acted normally and moved through the front doors inside of Professor Rowan's lab. The two walked off to the left as May and Max moved in the opposite direction, and Dawn, Barry, Kenny, and Clemont all went straight into the main hall of the laboratory. Ash went into an open room that looked to be a desk setup for the professor, with a few monitors all connected to a high-powered computer under the desk. There were a few file cabinets to the left of the desk, and he instinctively went over to the cabinets, opening a few up silently as he looked at the papers inside.

One folder full of papers caught Ash's eye, which was labelled with "Emails from Samuel" written in cursive, but he still managed to understand what it said and he pulled it out of the cabinet. He skimmed through the papers, until one caught his eye with its title and date, being from the year 1995. He pulled it out of the stack of papers, and he began to read it as his eyes widened in surprise

" _Joseph -_

 _I've sent you some results from a test collaborated by Cedric and I about the origins of Pokemon and their initial bond with humans, and I thought that they would be incredibly interesting to your field of study as well._

 _The results show that every Pokemon did have their elemental powers from the beginning, but the humans at the time seemed to share some aspects of those as well. Eventually, we humans seemed to lose the ability to use these powers, and there are only a few more left in our world today who are able to use those elemental abilities._

 _Many people who were able to use these abilities centuries ago have produced families and have kept their tradition intact, with some living in almost every League-official region. Some have even made their home in my town of Pallet, and people with these innate abilities could be living in your hometown of Sandgem and the neighboring town of Twinleaf as well._

 _Many people from these clans have the power to use these elemental abilities, but they are so far deep within them that it is very difficult for them to unlock those innate abilities that they are virtually unable to access them until something such as a tragic event or something that causes a seal on their power to break._

 _Aurea and I did some tests on her assistants willingly and some Pokemon capable of using typical elemental powers, and the results showed that every person is able to use them because of how those families grew and reproduced long ago. Each person has a specific element they can use out of the seventeen discovered Pokemon types, and it's available for everyone if they're able to unlock it._

 _I thought you would want to know this because your studies focus on Pokemon evolution, and some information about how humans have evolved since then to compare with the evolutions of Pokemon during that same time period._

 _These results are enclosed right below this writing, so I hope you use this information well in your research._

 _-Samuel Oak, PhD._

Ash finished reading through the results underneath the writing, and he blinked for a second as he put the paper down on top of the folder, taking a breath to process all the information he had just read. Professor Oak knew about the Aura Guardians or at least people who could use Aura for a few years now, and this was dated right around the time where he reached Rota for the first time with Brock, May, and Max and helped save the Mew and the Tree of Beginning. Ash had told Professor Oak about some parts in the incident in Rota after it first happened, but the Professor dismissed it when it was first mentioned. It then came to him that the professor had probably known his father when he was dating his mom, and known of his Aura abilities and the reason why he left.

"Hey, Ash, are you okay?", asked Misty conerningly.

That question snapped Ash out of his thoughts as he turned to his right to face Misty, who was standing on the other side of the desk with a slightly worried look on her face as Ash walked over slowly to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that I found something that could clear up a lot of stuff about our current situation right now.", Ash explained.

Misty perked up. "Oh, really? Why don't you take a picture of it or something so we can look at it later!"

"I don't have a phone or anything that can do that, but here's the email if you want to.", explained Ash as he handed the printed email over to her.

Misty pulled out her Pokegear from her pocket and quickly snapped a picture of it, handing it back to Ash as he put it back into the manilla folder it belonged to. He placed the folder back in the file cabinet and closed it, walking away from the desk with Misty as they noticed the others looking at what else the laboratory had to offer for them.

"Hey, guys? We were planning on heading out now, but you can come later and meet with us at the Pokemon Center.", Ash explained.

"Great! We'll probably just come over in a few minutes or so.", answered May.

Ash grinned as he and Misty walked out of the laboratory and started to walk towards the Pokemon Center, but he couldn't help but feel a sense that something was off in that document. It wasn't every day that you discover something about the origins of humans and Pokemon and just leave it in a cramped file cabinet in your laboratory.

"You know, I read a little part of that paper, and it kinda explained all of this weird stuff happening to all of us lately.", Ash exclaimed out of the blue.

Misty raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"I'll just tell everyone later.", Ash mumbled. "But I think it does have something to do with why we're all somehow being able to use Aura after generations of only a few Aura Guardians existing in the world."

"Do you really think it could explain why we're constantly unlocking these abilities? It would make sense, but you need to tell us more about it to make sure it's true.", thought Misty out loud.

Ash's brow furrowed. "It did say that Aura is transferred to you from your parents and ancestors, so that might explain some parts of this whole thing."

"From our parents… so you're saying that our ancestors were able to use Aura and passed it down to us?", Misty asked in disbelief.

"I guess, but maybe our families weren't able to use them for a long time until we came along, since it's a special occasion when you unlock your Aura.", explained Ash.

Misty put her head in her hands. "If that's true, then I don't know what to think…"

"I know how you feel, Mist. I just hope it isn't the same situation with the others and their parents as well.", Ash answered.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Johto Region - Ecruteak City**_

"I started flying over as soon as I heard the news, and it looks like I'm the first one here." Clair announced. "So, how's everyone been over the past couple of weeks?"

"It's fine, asides for the impending threat of Rainbow Rocket breathing down our necks every day." Lance retorted.

"It's been all right, I guess… " Cynthia mused. She looked up from her Poketch quickly and was surprised to see a number of faces staring intensely at her.

"I'm sorry go here about your home region, Cynthia." Clair commented. "It must have been hard to see your people in such danger like that, but I'm sure you can handle it."

Cynthia held her head down. "Yeah, but my Elite Four are doing a great job in Sinnoh as well, so they deserve all the credit, not me."

"Hey, what's that sound?" Diantha asked as she pointed up into the air.

Cynthia followed her finger and watched as a number of flying Pokemon circled the air around them, and they descended on the cobblestone path in front of them to reveal the seven other Johto Gym Leaders on their Pokemon's backs.

"Looks like the gang's already here!", Lance shouted.

"Why wouldn't I come after everything that's happened already!" Chuck yelled as he jumped off his ride. "I'm so ready to take down those Rainbow Rocket scum here once and for all!"

"We have to first make sure we're able to take them all down, you know." Pryce commented quietly.

"I think he knows that much, Pryce." Jasmine added. "Chuck here can't possibly be that dumb if he's a martial arts master as he says he is."

"Why thank you-hey! What was that for!" Chuck asked in confusion and anger.

"There's no time to answer that, Jasmine. The hour is at hand." Lance interrupted as he pointed southeast in the air.

"They're coming, and we have to fight back."

* * *

"Lance and his group have been spotted right outside of Bellchime Trail, sir. What should we do to counter their positioning?" asked a Grunt near the open door of the helicopter.

"Wait a few moments until signaling the rest of your troops. Can you tell me who's in that group with Lance?" Proton asked as he stepped forwards.

"I think I see a few people… crap! It's the Johto Gym Leaders and Champions from Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos, sir." the Grunt explained.

"That's not good… " mumbled Proton. "But I'm sure we can overcome this with our men. Group 1, fall out!"

A handful of Grunts braced themselves as the sliding door on the whole side of the helicopter opened up, and they jumped out with parachutes as numerous Golbat flew alongside them towards Lance and the other people there.

"Group 2, wait five minutes, and then you should jump out!" Proton added.

"Hey, Proton. How's it going out there?" asked Ariana, who had left the cockpit for the first time all day.

Proton scowled at his former partner in crime as she slowly walked through the mass of Grunts to reach him. He stood where he was and crossed his arms in frustration, irritated at her very presence in front of him as a Rainbow Rocket Executive.

"Why would you care? All you were assigned to do was pilot the helicopter safely, so surely you can do that without failure unlike your position as an Executive." Proton jabbed.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Proton. Giovanni just said he thinks you might be a better choice for this mission, but I was never demoted by him in any way from my rank." Ariana answered.

"Oh, come on already. We've all heard the rumors for years, so don't act all innocent when we all know what's going on here." Proton snarked.

"I'm sure whatever rumors you've been hearing, they're not true at all. I don't think somebody could have been spreading lies about me behind their backs, since that would be subordination of their superior and a demotion as well." Ariana explained.

"I'm sure nobody would want to follow those rules when they can talk to their fellow Grunts and not get caught. Team Rocket isn't for rule-followers, you know." Proton added.

"I know, but there should at least be an established order within our ranks to set people in line. Who else agrees with me?" Ariana asked.

Silence was present across the whole helicopter, leaving Ariana speechless while Proton just smirked at his former accomplice.

"Now that that's out of the way, Group 2! Head out now!"

* * *

"Dragonair, use Iron Tail!" Clair commanded at the nearest crowd of Golbat.

Some of the Golbat fell out of the air and onto the ground due to massive damage from the attack, while others managed to stay up with significant damage totals wrecking their whole force.

"Don't target the Golbat, Clair! There's people jumping out of those helicopters!" Falkner yelled loudly.

Clair quickly moved to her right and noticed Grunts in parachutes falling out of the helicopters and moving in the air towards the Bell Tower, the Golbat following them as they flew right above her.

"Fall back! They're going over our assault!" Clair shouted.

"What the-they are! Go back to the tower, everyone!" Jasmine added.

"Hey, do you see that?", asked Cynthia.

She was pointing in front of her to the south, where there were faint figures in the air that seemed to get ever closer with each passing second right near the tower and away from the Johto Gym Leaders as well.

"I do… but I can't tell who they are. Maybe they're some kind of aid sent by the Gym Leaders here?" reaffirmed Alder.

Lance grabbed some binoculars and stared in that direction with them. "I can't tell who they are, but they might be a friend rather than a foe. Let's wait for them to come closer to see who they really are."

"I don't think they're our allies, Lance. Look!" Diantha shouted.

Lance zoomed in on them with his binoculars and finally noticed the rainbow-colored R on their black uniforms, and he winced in horror as the binoculars fell from his hands. He left them on the floor as he ran back inside the tower, desperate to reach the top before they did and could summon Ho-Oh. The rest of the Champions stood speechless as they watched Lance run back inside the tower, and they remained still for a few more seconds as they waited for someone else to take the role.

"What are you waiting for! Let's go!" Cynthia shouted.

She ran away from the trail and into the tower's open entrance, and from looking behind her she saw the other Champions running behind her through the maze-like tower as they rushed up towards the top.

"Isn't there a faster way to get through this place?" asked Alder as he lagged behind.

"Just fight through and keep going! We have to win this!" Diantha yelled.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Sandgem Town**_

"So what did you guys end up seeing in the lab?" asked Drew.

"Just some cool books and artifacts, but nothing really that caught my interest. But Ash said he found something really interesting that could shed some light on all of this, so you all should listen up." Misty explained.

The whole group's eyes widened as they turned to Misty and Ash, who had waited for the rest of the gang who was still at the lab to return to the Pokemon Center before they started to give their explanation as to what exactly happened back at the laboratory.

"Okay, so I was looking through Professor Rowan's stuff that was in his unlocked file cabinets, until I came across this email from Professor Oak, sent over three years ago around this time." Ash began.

"This definitely sounds interesting enough to be good, so keep going. What did Professor Oak end up writing in the email?" Brock asked.

"What he basically said was that he had been doing some research with Professor Juniper on the origins of Pokemon and how that connected with the humans of that time, and it showed that everyone was able to use their Aura in that time period without having it sealed away in your body and having to unlock it later on." Ash continued.

"Seriously? Everyone could use it?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, but Professor Oak also said that after a few generations, people weren't able to use their Auras as much as they used to. Those people who were still able to use them passed them on to their descendants, who became Aura Guardians in Sir Aaron's time." Ash added.

"So what does that have to do with us?" Dawn chirped.

"Well, there used to be Aura Guardians who were able to use elemental Auras of each Pokemon type nowadays. With some of us being able to do the same, wouldn't you think that… " Ash commented.

"You're not serious, are you?" Gary inquired. "You're saying that we're descended from Aura Guardians, Ash?"

"That may be the truth, but I'm not entirely sure. Everyone in this world is able to use Aura, but they have to unlock it first. I don't know about the rest of you, but I already know that's true for me." explained Ash.

"That's definitely something to look into, but we shouldn't be making any conclusions now. Let's just get back to enjoying our day without anything else going wrong around us." Leaf added.

"Now that's something I can get behind!" Barry shouted.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Johto Region - Ecruteak City**_

Lance stopped to catch his breath as he stepped up onto the top of the tower, where Rainbow Rocket agents were surrounding him as soon as his head came up from the last ladder that he had to climb up.

"Well, look who it is. Proton, we've found the head honcho!" a Grunt shouted.

Lance winced as he pulled himself up, noticing a whole crowd of Grunts standing near him, with the green-haired Proton walking over slowly towards him, a clear smirk on his face. Proton put his hands on his hips without making a noise, showing Lance just how deep of a hole he had dug himself into.

"Glad you could make it, Lance. Since your friends are still stuck at the bottom of this beautiful tower, they unfortunately have to miss our victory here." Proton bragged.

"You won't win, Proton. My friends and I will stop you, so don't forget that." Lance gritted.

Proton shrugged. "Whatever, Lance. All you do is get to watch me win, since you're completely outnumbered!"

Proton walked up to the set of bells behind Lance, and he turned around to see the Rocket Executive step up to the bells with a mad grin on his face. He started to shake the bells as Lance fell to his knees in horror.

"Bells, grant me my wish! Bring Ho-Oh back to this tower of legend!" Proton shouted manically.

The bells started to ring, and Proton showed an insane grin on his face as the sound filled through the entire city. The bells continued to shake and ring for a few more seconds, until it stopped altogether, leaving Proton and Lance speechless.

"What's going on? Why aren't they working?" Proton yelled in anger.

Lance had just opened his eyes, and he noticed Proton hitting the bells with his hands and trying to make a sound emerge out of them, but all they did was show cracks as the Executive smashed them on the floor.

"Proton, no! You don't know what you're getting into!" Lance shouted.

"That's what you think, Lance." Proton smirked.

He grabbed the four bells and held them up over his head, and smashed them on the ground into pieces as Lance looked on in horror. He cackled as his Grunts backed away, stepping away from Lance as he finally had room to bring himself to his feet.

"Proton… what did you do?" he asked.

"Hahahaha! Oh, you'll see. Breaking those bells was all part of my plan so that we can capture even more Legendary Pokemon!" Proton cackled.

Lance's jaw dropped. "What are you talking about? Now you can't even summon Ho-Oh in the first place!"

"Oh, that's what you think. Just give it a few minutes!" Proton exclaimed.

The sound of a rushing wind seemed to fill Lance's ears as he whirled around the roof of the tower, feeling almost as if something was watching him and Proton where they were and what they were doing as wind became more fierce as Lance struggled to keep himself on his feet, and he could see Proton holding on to the top pillar for support as the wind even knocked some Grunts off the top platform. Lance could see three shadows rushing with the wind, but they were too fast for him to tell who or what they were.

"Yes… yes! The legendary beasts will be mine, along with Ho-Oh!" Proton shouted.

"Legendary… what?" Lance asked tiredly.

Suddenly, the three shadows appeared in front of Proton were the bells used to be, and Lance's jaw dropped as he saw what was unfolding in front of him. The three beasts of Johto were standing right in front of Proton, and they almost seemed to glow in the sunlight on top of the tower.

"Entei… Raikou… Suicune… you will all be mine soon… Grunts, attack!" Proton shouted, pointing towards the three beasts.

The Grunts rushed forwards toward the three beasts as Lance fell down on the floor, struggling to get up from all the commotion the Grunts were causing and shaking the floor as a result. He crawled for a few seconds as he tried to get closer to Proton, but to no avail.

"Are the capsules ready?" Proton asked.

Lance could only hear Proton's voice from his position on the ground, and he tried to look up and see what exactly was going on in front of him. What did Proton mean by "capsules", and why did he need other people to handle them so well?

"All right. Fire them up, and make it quick!" Proton shouted.

Lance still couldn't see what was going on, but he could tell something weird was going on. The sunlight seemed to grow more stronger and harsher as he pushed himself to his feet, watching as the three beasts just stood there despite all that Proton was doing against them.

"Hey, boss? Why aren't they moving or anything?" inquired a Grunt, observing the beasts from afar.

"Just leave them be. They're merely observing our actions, but it'll be too late for them once we're done. Once everything has been collected, then you can start with the Dark Balls, just as Giovanni commanded us to." Proton explained.

Lance shrugged off the thoughts about converters and Dark Balls in his head, choosing to focus on the immediate threat of Proton and his Grunts still being there against Entei, Raikou, and Suicune. He had to stop them before they caused Ho-Oh to appear, and prevent them from catching all four Legendary Pokemon. He heard some commotion from behind him, and he quickly turned around to see Cynthia climbing up the ladder from the floor below, being followed by Diantha and Alder shortly after their heads poked up from the square hole in the roof.

"We came as soon as we could, Lance. What's the emergency here?" Cynthia asked.

"It's a big one. Proton's managed to summon the three Legendary Beasts by breaking the Crystal Bells, and they're trying to catch them so that Ho-Oh will appear to avenge their death, since he is their master after all." Lance explained.

"Oh. I see…" Alder mumbled.

"Then what are we waiting for! We need to fight back!" Diantha shouted.

She ran with her Gardevoir right behind the group of Grunts, and commanded a strong Dazzling Gleam attack that blinded the Grunts and sent them flying onto the floor or off the tower entirely. The legendary beasts still stood in place despite all the commotion, with Dark Balls flying everywhere as the Grunts struggled to get back up to their feet. Out of his peripheral vision, Lance noticed the beasts now dodging the Dark Balls that had been thrown out of the Grunts' hands, but since there were so many it was hard for them to make sure they weren't getting caught by the stray Pokeballs.

"It looks like you're all out of luck, since we're all still here. Keep firing those Dark Balls, boys!" Proton shouted.

The Legendary beasts finally decided to step up to the plate and defend themselves from the Grunts, with Suicune jumping in the air to deliver an Aurora Beam attack that sent more Grunts flying backwards.

"We need to help all of them! Let's go!" Lance shouted.

"Whatever you say, man. Volcarona, use Heat Wave!" Alder commanded.

Another section of Grunts were knocked away by the fiery blast from Volcarona, and the Champions rushed over to Suicune as it desperately fired off more attacks to defend itself from Proton's onslaught.

"I'll assist Suicune, but you all have to split up to protect Entei and Raikou before Proton notices! Lance cried as he blocked a Dark Ball with his arm.

Cynthia ran over to Entei with her Garchomp while Adler and Diantha stopped in front of Raikou with their Pokemon ready to assist them in battle. They continued to defend against the onslaught of Grunts and Dark Balls for a few minutes, until they noticed Proton smirking amidst the crisis in front of him.

"Hahahaha! You may think you're actually winning against me, but capturing these three was never our goal." Proton bragged.

"What do you mean? We know you want Ho-Oh and all, but what's your deal now?" Alder shouted.

Proton's smirk faltered, revealing pure anger underneath the charisma he was using against the Champions. He whirled back around towards his Grunts, shouting at them as they cowered in fear at his yelling.

"Ariana… I should have never trusted you at all. Now this mission is in danger of failing because of you telling those fools over there!" Proton yelled into the air.

"So she's the one that's been fetching information for us from you guys!" Diantha exclaimed.

Proton's smirk returned, catching Lance and the others off guard. "But that's no matter to us anymore. Just turn around and see for yourself!"

Lance turned around to see three Grunts standing behind Entei, Raikou, and Suicune, with some sort of cylindrical device in their hands. He noticed the other Champions turning around and watching the three Grunts hold the devices out in front of them, only to press the buttons on the top.

"What the… what are they doing?" Cynthia shouted.

"Preventing you from defeating me, that's all. Now, fire those capsules up!" Proton fired back.

The capsules opened up, sucking in all the nearby light energy from the three Legendary Beasts as they writhed in pain. All the Champions could do was watch as Ho-Oh's last protectors had the energy sucked out of them, and as Proton laughed in the distance.

"What do we do now? We can't stop whatever they're doing!" Diantha shouted.

"The only thing we can do is wait and see what comes out of this. It may be unfortunate, but it's the only thing we have left." Lance gritted.

Suicune, Entei, and Raikou all fell down onto the floor, their energy completely drained as the Grunts returned their capsules to their fellow Grunts as Proton crossed his arms in victory.

"You can't win, you know. Now that the three beasts are down for the count, you know what that means. Ariana did send you that email, right?" Proton snarked.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Sandgem Town**_

" _This is Sinnoh Now with a special report from the Johto Region. The famous Bell Tower in Ecruteak City is currently under attack by the syndicate known as Rainbow Rocket, who is also responsible for attacks on the Indigo Plateau, Sootopolis City, and our own Canalave City just a few days earlier."_ Rhonda explained on the TV.

The group was sitting in the Pokemon Center when the TV shifted to this special report, catching their combined attention as they started to listen to the grim news Rhonda was busy dishing out to whoever was watching the news at that very moment.

"Arceus… I hope Morty and Sakura are all right… " Brock murmured under his breath.

"This isn't good… how do they have so many forces that they're able to attack only two days after what happened in Canalave?" Leaf exclaimed.

" _Our affiliates at Johto Now are live at the scene, where it seems only a few figures are at the top of the Bell Tower, fighting against this force of soldiers seemingly tasked with destroying the world and its regions. We'll take you there now, where a measly force of four stands up to their terror."_ Rhonda finished.

The camera shifted from the studio to an aerial view of Ecruteak City, with smoke rising from the top of the Bell Tower. The group leaned in closer to the TV, desperate to see who was standing up against Rainbow Rocket's assault.

The new reporter smiled from inside a helicopter. _"This is Jessica from Johto Now, live at the scene on top of the Bell Tower. It seems that four figures are continuing to stand up to the assault by Rainbow Rocket. Let's zoom in to see who exactly they are and-what the hell!"_

The camera zoomed further to focus on the four people in fighting stances, then shifting back towards the Rainbow Rocket forces, and back to the fighters as the whole gang watched in awe.

" _Fighting against Rainbow Rocket are none other than the Indigo Champion Lance, Cynthia of Sinnoh, Alder of Unova, and Diantha of Kalos! This is unbelievable!"_ the reporter shouted.

"What the-what in Arceus' name is Lance doing there!" Leaf yelled. "What does he think he's doing!"

"There's no time to complain, Leaf! We need to see this!" Ash responded.

" _And what are those things on the floor next to them? The whole world needs to know about this!"_ Jessica inquired.

The camera slowly zoomed in past Lance and the other Champions and towards the fallen bodies on the floor behind them, shocking everyone in the room and in the whole Pokemon Center as a whole. The camera seemed to shake and almost fall over as it turned back to the reporter's terrified face inside the helicopter.

" _Ladies and gentlemen, the three beasts of Johto have been defeated. Entei, Raikou, and Suicune were said to be the guardians of this region, but they have seemingly fallen at the hands of these terrorists. We must keep our hope alive but I don't know even if the Champions are enough to stop them if they've knocked out our region's protectors."_ the reporter explained solemnly.

"Suicune… no… " Misty looked at the TV with tears starting to form in her eyes.

"This is insane… how could they all be defeated?" Ritchie asked.

"I don't know, but we need to know how this ends. We can't leave here at all until we know how we can defeat Rainbow Rocket by learning from Lance and the other Champions." Gary reinforced.

"That sounds good to me." Ash agreed. "Now who's with us!"

Cheers erupted in the booth as the whole gang raised their fists in triumph, willing to stay strong in defense of all that Rainbow Rocket would throw at them and what they already had done to the world.

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Johto Region - Ecruteak City**_

"Don't you feel like we're missing something up there?" Bugsy asked as his Scyther fought a Grunt head-to-head.

"Don't worry about it now, Bugsy! I'm sure Lance and his friends are all right, and we have bigger problems to worry about anyway." Whitney reassured.

"I guess you're right. Keep it up, Scyther!" Bugsy encouraged.

The Grunt stopped fighting the Mantis Pokemon as a rush of wind brushed past the whole crowd, pausing the battle as everyone in the streets looked up at the Bell Tower to see what was going on.

"What was that rush of wind? Was it a Pokemon?" Jasmine asked.

"I don't know, but we should get a better view of it. Dragonite, let's fly up!" Clair interrupted.

She got on her Pokemon's back and flew up into the air, and the others followed suit by flying on their Pokemon as well. Bugsy flew up on his Scyther, Jasmine brought her Skarmory out of its Pokeball, and Falkner's Pidgeot all helped their fellow Gym Leaders up into the air so they could see what was going on.

"The wind's getting faster, and I can feel the sun starting to burn my back! What's going on!" Chuck yelled.

"I have no idea, but we need to see what's happening up at the top of the tower!" Clair responded.

The sky slowly turned a goldish color as the sun seemed to merge with the golden light, and a clear-as-day rainbow formed behind Bell Tower as the golden light enveloped the city underneath.

"It's beautiful… I can't believe what I'm seeing… " Jasmine murmured.

The clouds opened up as a shadow flew out from above them, stopping to land just above the tower's peak as its colors revealed itself to the world. Ho-Oh flapped its wings slowly above the tower, standing majestically over the battle unfolding below him.

"It's Ho-Oh… I don't believe it… " Clair amused.

"We need to see how this goes. Don't move an inch, anybody!" Pryce shouted.

* * *

Lance turned around and watched as the sky was enveloped in a golden light, his eyes widening in awe as a rainbow formed behind the tower, shining in all colors as feathers seemed to descend from the clouds above. He looked up to see the legendary Ho-Oh fly down from the clouds and stare down at the fallen bodies of the Legendary Beasts, his eyes then turning back to Proton and his Grunts as they stopped to observe this divine sight from above.

"Ho-Oh… oh my Arceus… " Lance murmured in awe.

"Don't just stand there, you fools! Grab the beasts while they're all distracted!" Proton yelled, his finger pointing at Lance frantically.

The Grunts resumed throwing their Dark Balls at Entei, Raikou, and Suicune, but they were caught off guard by Cynthia, Alder, and Diantha as they helped deflect the Pokeballs from their targets with their most powerful Pokemon assisting them as well.

"You won't hurt these three anymore, you scum! Garchomp, use Brick Break!" Cynthia raged.

"That's right! Volcarona, use Bug Buzz now!" Alder followed.

Proton winced as the Garchomp's attack decimated his Grunts' forces, and the Bug Buzz from the Volcarona sent some of his Grunts backwards off the ledge of the tower. Luckily there were more forces ready to help them if they fell, but it was still bad if he lost some of his forces right now.

"Gardevoir, use Moonblast!" Diantha explained.

A giant moon formed above Gardevoir's hands as the Embrace Pokemon fired the bright moon at the remaining Grunts in front of her. The attack dealt massive damage to them and their Pokemon, sending more and more flying backwards or off the tower entirely. Lance watched Entei, Suicune, and Raikou as they got up from the floor and shook off their injuries, almost as if they were healed again by Ho-Oh's powers. They all got back to their feet and stared menacingly at Proton and his remaining Grunts, ready to take them out.

"Change of plans, Grunts! Target Ho-Oh instead of the beasts!" Proton yelled.

"You got it, boss!" shouted a Grunt as he gripped a Dark Ball in his hand.

Suicune! Entei, Raikou! Can you help us protect Ho-Oh from these invaders!" Diantha asked.

The three beasts nodded silently as Dark Balls started to rain all over the place, with everyone now ready to help out. Lance got on Dragonite's back and flew up into the air, knocking some Dark Balls out of the air that were aimed for Ho-Oh.

"But sir! What about the light?" asked a Grunt shakily.

"We have enough for today, so some of you fly back to the base now. We have bigger things to worry about now, such as capturing Ho-Oh for the boss anyway." Proton explained.

"You won't get away with this! Use Brick Break, Garchomp!" Cynthia yelled.

The Land Shark Pokemon slammed its hand onto a flurry of Dark Balls that were thrown in the direction of Ho-Oh, breaking them into pieces as they fell onto the floor. Cynthia stepped down as her colleagues took the lead, stopping any thrown Dark Ball in its tracks as they were continuously being thrown.

"Volcarona, use Heat Wave again!" Alder cried.

The fiery wave sent more and more Dark Balls flying back towards the Rainbow Rocket soldiers, giving the Champions and Ho-Oh some more time until someone else needed to step up to the plate. Raikou decided to strike first, unleashing a massive Thunder attack on the remaining Grunts as the Champions took some time to recover. Entei followed suit with a powerful Fire Blast that wrecked some more Dark Balls, melting a few that had been thrown in the center of its blast and singing a few Grunts' hairs to boot. Suicune finished it off with a Hydro Pump attack that completely drenched Proton and his Grunts, who quickly wiped themselves off before throwing more Dark Balls in Ho-Oh's vicinity.

"It's like they never run out of these things! Who even made them anyway!" Lance shouted.

"It's a very old product from Team Rocket, made over three years ago by one of our old science divisions. We've been able to mass-produce them over these three years, so we never run out while you scum get tired out from our assault." Proton snarked.

"He's right, Lance. We're all starting to lose our strength." Diantha commented.

While the Champions were talking to themselves and the beasts were recovering from their massive attacks, Proton stared at the situation in front of him. This was the perfect time to launch a surprise attack, and he knew he had to be ready.

He grabbed a Dark Ball from his belt, enlarged it in his right hand, and brought his arm back in a classic windup. His eyes narrowed on the massive target of Ho-Oh, stepped his left foot forwards, and absolutely launched the ball at the phoenix. Lance heard the sound of a rushing blur and turned around, watching the black and purple Pokeball flying above his head as he saw Ho-Oh still flying behind him. He jumped up into the air, determined to knock the Dark Ball down before it reached the legendary phoenix. He brought his right arm down in a sweeping motion to where he thought the Dark Ball would fly to, but his head spun around to see the black and purple blur smack Ho-Oh's body as the phoenix cried out in pain.

Lance's eyes bulged as Ho-Oh continued to thrash as the Dark Ball opened up, sucking the Rainbow Pokemon in black electricity into the malicious device. He landed back on the floor to watch the Pokeball shake, praying that it wouldn't work. It shook once… twice… and a third time as Proton cackled loudly in a victorious celebration. Lance fell to his knees as the Rocket Executive walked past him and picked up the Dark Ball, the legendary beasts also standing in silence as their master had fallen.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted! See ya soon, Lance!" Proton shouted.

He walked away from the shocked Champions as he stepped off the ledge of the tower, only to be found standing on top of one of his helicopters as the Grunts filed in beside him. Lance tried to make a run for Proton and stop him before it was too late, but his legs gave out on him and he fell to his knees.

"No… how could we lose again!" Alder yelled.

"I… I don't know. I was so confident we would win… maybe we were just caught off guard… " Diantha mumbled.

Cynthia fell onto her knees, slamming her hand on the intricately-tiled roof in frustration. "We should have won… no!"

The Champions looked to Lance for another opinion, but all they saw was him on his knees, facing the legendary beasts with a shocked expression on his face. The beasts looked back at him with disappointed faces as the sounds of helicopter blades faded in the distance.

"Lance… what do we do now?" Cynthia asked.

The Indigo Champion pushed himself up onto his feet, tears starting to form in his eyes as he faced back towards his fellow Champions. He slowly walked towards his colleagues, struggling to keep himself on his feet as he realized what could come soon for him and everybody else.

"Let's just climb down this stupid tower first." Lance muttered.

"We'll figure it out as we go."

* * *

 _ **January 4, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Mt. Coronet**_

The moonlight filtered through the window of Mars's office as she continued to work on her computer, scrolling through spreadsheets and emails as the dark sky enveloped the whole base in the night. She saw an alert appear on the top right corner of her monitor, and after reading it she got up from her chair and started to walk out of her office, pulling open the door as she ran towards Master Cyrus's balcony in the middle of the base.

"You're about five seconds late, Mars. I heard you don't want to miss this announcement from Master Cyrus today, you know." Saturn snarked.

"Oh, whatever. Let's just hear what he has to say." Jupiter commented.

They looked up to see their leader step out onto the balcony and stare down at them, with their Grunts waiting alongside them in anticipation as they listened for what he had to say.

"Attention everyone of this branch of Rainbow Rocket. Our plans for our conquest of the Sinnoh Region will begin in just a few days, so here are your mission plans for what we have to do when that time arrives." Cyrus explained.

"The next phase of our plan is almost among us, and I hope you all know your targets and where you will be going to. We need our plans to be perfect, and we need to execute them without failure in order to please our leader." he continued.

"I can assure you, Master Cyrus, our team is ready." Saturn bragged.

Mars and Jupiter nodded their heads in approval, and Cyrus smiled evilly at his subordinates below, seemingly pleased with their abilities. He looked back at his three commanders, their eyes filled with determination as they looked to please their master.

"A new dawn for this region is among us, and we will be the ones to bring it! We may have failed over a year ago, but I have faith that we will succeed once again! Rainbow Rocket shall emerge victorious out of this battle, and there will be nobody left to stop us after that!" Cyrus yelled charismatically.

Everyone below him cheered in approval as Cyrus continued to stare down at his troops. The old pep rally speech never got old for him, and it always seemed to work whenever he needed to hype up his subordinates for an upcoming mission.

After all, his troops needed to be confident enough if they wanted to take down a whole region's way of life in just one day.

* * *

So the conflict in Sinnoh is finally reaching its climax. I've been long awaiting these next few chapters, and I think you'll all love them as well as soon as I upload both of them.

As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


	23. XXII - Legend of the Lakes: Part 1

**I'm back, everyone! I hope you're all excited for this chapter, which is bound to provide lots of action for any reader here. I would know, since I wrote the whole thing myself. I hope you all enjoy this chapter as well as the rest of my story!**

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Sandgem Town**_

" _Ash? Can you hear me?"_

The raven-haired trainer's eyes snapped open as he tensed up, scanning his surroundings until he saw a familiar face floating in front of him. Azelf was smiling at him slightly as it flew above him, waiting for him to respond back.

"Azelf, is that you? Man, it's been a long time! How've ya been?" Ash asked.

" _I'm fine, but my fellow lake guardians and I could be in grave danger in only a few hours. That's why I brought you and your friends here to discuss some important matters."_ Azelf explained.

Azelf pointed to its right, and Ash followed its gaze to see Dawn and Brock standing next to Mesprit and Uxie, their eyes widening in surprise once they noticed their friend standing next to the Being of Willpower.

"Ash? You were brought here too?" Dawn asked.

"I think I just got here, but yeah. I guess Mesprit and Uxie brought you guys here as well, right?" Ash inquired.

Brock nodded. "I hope we were all called here to talk about something not distressing to the fate of the whole region, but let's just hear what they have to say."

" _Good thinking, Brock. The main reason we brought you all here was that we've heard something about people targeting us, and we hoped you would be there to help us out in that regard again." Uxie explained._

"Wait, people want to capture you again? Is it somebody like Team Galactic who wants to do that?" Dawn asked worriedly.

" _We're not exactly sure, but some of our fellow legendaries have spread some rumors, and we wanted to make sure you could help us out if we needed it."_ Mesprit added.

" _We knew you were already in the region, and so that's why we called you over here right now to talk about this. Do you think you would be able to help us out if these people try and capture us again? You already know we're not the best at defending ourselves… "_ Azelf murmured.

"Sure! You can count on us!" Ash grinned.

The three lake guardians smiled. _"Great! You will forever be in our debt for this, everyone."_

Suddenly, Mesprit started to convulse in pain and shake around in midair, and Dawn ran up to it and tried to calm her friend down. She held the Being of Emotion in her arms and tried to help it out, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Mesprit, please be okay! We don't want to lose you now!" Dawn cried.

Suddenly, Azelf and Uxie started to convulse and shake as well, prompting Ash and Brock to rush to their aid as well. Their efforts didn't seem to amount to any improvement, as the three lake guardians continued to cry out in pain.

" _Ash… Brock… Dawn… they're coming closer… we need you to save us… "_ the three murmured in synchronization.

"We'll help you as soon as we can, all right? You can trust that we'll be there whenever you need it." Dawn reassured.

"Yeah. We promise!" Ash added.

A black shadow seemed to appear from behind the lake guardians, and it got closer as the guardians broke out of Ash, Dawn, and Brock's grip and flew behind them. The three friends sprinted after them, trying to avoid the shadow all while making sure Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie were safe.

"Come on! We have to keep running!" Brock cried.

Ash and Dawn tried to keep up with Brock and the lake guardians, but their legs eventually gave out on them after what seemed like minutes of running. The two friends stared back at the shadow and to themselves, trying to get a last gasp in before everything went black. Ash's eyes shot open again as he sat up in his bed, panting to catch his breath as he finally felt the sweat all around his body. He lifted his head up to see Misty still lying fast asleep in the other bed, and he got up out of his sheets to compose himself for a few moments.

The clock shone a bright 5:30 AM as Ash paced around the room, wondering what to do and where Dawn and Brock's rooms were so he could talk to them about this. If he was up at this hour because of that "dream", then they were probably also awake and looking for answers as well.

"All right. Here goes nothing… " Ash mumbled as he walked over to the door.

He opened the door slowly, trying not to make any noise as he closed it and walked into the hallway of the second floor of the Pokemon Center, looking around for any signs of Dawn or Brock nearby. He looked to his left and saw Dawn standing outside of what seemed to be her room, and saw Brock running over to them out of the corner of his right eye. The three grouped up and stood in the middle of the hallway, trying to catch their breath before talking.

"Let's go downstairs so nobody else wakes up from this. Besides, nobody else is probably gonna be in the lobby at this hour." Brock reassured.

Ash nodded. "I understand. Let's just get this over with… "

The group made their way towards the stairs and walked down them slowly towards the main lobby, where they found a booth and began to recount the events of their shared dream, with the darkness alongside them.

"So do you guys think that was real? Or was it some sort of trick or something… "Ash asked.

"I have no idea, but we need to be careful if we're going to check it out. How do you think we should counter whatever the enemy's planning for?" Brock asked.

"Well, we don't know where we're going, but it makes sense for us to split up into a few groups so we can go to each of the lakes with equal firepower." Dawn explained.

"That sounds good, but we really need to be at our best strengths once we get to the lakes and see who we're up against. Do you think we should wake up the others and tell them about this?" Ash inquired.

"No, they need to get some sleep if we want to prepare for the rest of the day. Let's just form a game plan here so that they don't have to worry about it." Dawn reassured.

Brock nodded in understanding. "All right. So what else do you think we should do?"

"I don't think we really have to do anything right now, since we should have everyone else's say on what decisions we're making for the group as a whole. We can't assume that the others are gonna go with everything we say once we talk to them." Dawn explained.

"Yeah… but I just hope Azelf's okay. I wouldn't want to let it down again, after what happened last time… "Ash murmured.

Dawn looked back at Ash with concern. "Ash, we totally understand. I'm worried about Mesprit, and I'm sure Brock feels the same way about Uxie right now."

Brock nodded in approval. "Dawn's right, you know."

"I guess you're right. So what do you wanna do, now that we're all up?" Ash asked.

"Well, we could keep thinking of ways to deal with whoever's trying to capture the lake guardians again, since it would be much better for us if we planned it ahead of time. We don't want to rush into battle again like we have the last few times we've had to deal with something like this." Brock explained.

"Yeah. Let's just try and do all we can before the others wake up, and we can go from there." Dawn reiterated.

"Ok, so where should we start? I know you guys want to split us up into a few groups, and I really think that would work well against whoever we're facing against at the lakes. But what are we going to do from there?" Ash asked.

"Well, we can try to surround the enemy by going around the whole lake, so they have no room to run once they at least make it near each of the three lakes. If they're all targeting one lake, then we can just get there as fast as possible to help that group out." Dawn exclaimed.

"But these lakes are all across the region. How do you suppose we're going to get there so quickly?" Brock asked.

Ash grinned. "Easy, Brock. Max can Teleport groups of people along with him, so there's no problem with that at all."

"I completely forgot about that! Good thinking, Ash." Brock complimented.

"So we've got that down, but we still don't know how strong these people can be, and that means we can't underestimate them one bit or else they'll get the upper hand almost instantly. We need to get the others up soon so that they can hear this, but we also need to be spiritually ready for this as well." Dawn explained.

Ash nodded in approval. "I know I'm ready, and I'm sure you both are as well. All of our adventures over the past month has led to this, and I know we can win.

" _Well, then what are you waiting for? You didn't think we would sleep in that late, would you?"_ Misty's voice registered in Ash's mind.

"Hey, Ash, what's going on now?" Dawn asked.

His face was tense, his eyes closed and the rest of his body looked like it was intensely concentrating on something as he continued to close his eyes, leaving Dawn and Brock to act as spectators for the moment as Ash continued to be silent.

Ash opened his eyes and looked behind him. "Oh, you can just see for yourself, Dawn. Look over there!"

The raven-haired trainer pointed up at the balcony with glee to see Misty and the rest of the group while Dawn and Brock followed his gaze towards the group. The others ran quickly downstairs towards the booth, making their way towards the trio as they got up from their seats to greet them as well.

"Hey, guys! Why did you wake up so early without telling us?" Barry asked.

Ash's face immediately tensed up again, and he turned around to face Dawn and Brock as the three conversed for another few seconds. The rest of the group stared at them as they continued to talk amongst themselves, wondering when they would ever respond.

"The truth is, Barry, that we've got another problem on our hands." Ash explained.

Dawn nodded. "So if you want to know what's going on, then you better sit down and listen up for all of this."

The others nodded in approval as they dragged some chairs over to the booth, where the trio sat back down in as the others got ready. Dawn took out a sheet of paper which already had some notes on it and a pencil, while Ash and Brock stared back at the others determinedly.

"Good thinking, guys. Now let's get down to business." Brock answered.

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 201**_

"Commander Mars! We've found a safe route for you to lead us through towards Lake Verity. Should we begin our trek there now?" a Grunt nervously asked.

Mars peered up from her industrial laptop screen and towards the lowly Grunt, who's green hair was shaking from her lack of confidence. Mars shrugged and closed the laptop, while standing up from the tree stump that she was sitting on.

"Then what are you waiting for, kid? Let's get a move on it already!" Mars yelled.

The Grunt slowly nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I'm sure we'll be on our way shortly."

Mars opened back up her laptop and clicked on one of her apps, which opened up an aerial map of this route and the surrounding area. She zoomed in on Lake Verity's southwest location while the routes around it lit up, and Mars gazed in at the nearby towns located on the map. Her eyes landed on a town directly to the south of Lake Verity, with its name listed as "Twinleaf" right next to its dotted location. She clicked on the label and a new tab popped up to the right, her eyes darting over to see the new information.

Mars grinned evilly as she stared at the words. "Hmph… so this is that brat's hometown… "

She pushed herself up off the stump just as the breeze started to flow through the area, brushing up against her cheeks as she held her arms closer for warmth. Just because Articuno was captured and the temperatures rose didn't mean it was summer weather outside, since it was still early January.

"Hey, you three! There's been a change of plans, so get over here!" Mars shouted.

She waited impatiently as the three Grunts awkwardly ran towards their Commander, bowing to her once they stopped about five feet in front of her. She slowly backed away as the Grunts continued to wait for her, but she stood her ground and started to speak.

"Now, I've discovered something that will drastically change our game plan, but it will lead to massive success here. Once you hear this, you will tell your teammates and nobody else. Is that correct?"

The Grunts slowly nodded.

"Okay. There's apparently a town to the south of here, and you Grunts are gonna surround it so nobody tries to interfere with me at the lake. I'll have a few of the Grunts come with me, while the rest of you go south to that town." Mars explained.

The Grunts nodded in unison again. "We understand, Commander Mars. We'll get the other Grunts with us towards that town right away."

"Good. Now get a move on it already!" Mars shouted again.

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 214**_

"Master Cyrus, this is G1. We're approaching Lake Valor as we speak, and some of our Grunts have already closed off the area. Not that it'll matter very much, since it's still very early in the morning." Saturn exclaimed.

" _That's very good, Saturn. Make sure nobody gets inside that perimeter your Grunts are enforcing, or else you'll know how bad it'll get for you. I expect you to succeed without fail today, unlike last time… "_ Cyrus's voice added through Saturn's earpiece

Saturn nodded and shut off the earpiece, his eyes darting back towards his group of tired Grunts as they played cards to pass the time while their boss was talking. He slowly walked over to them slowly, his sharp eyes gazing at their cards carefully.

"There will be no time for games right now, Grunts. We have a mission to fulfill, and I expect you to complete it with success." he reprimanded.

"Aw, come on, Saturn! Don't you wanna play some cards while we wait?" one of the Grunts asked.

The Galactic Commander smirked at his subordinates, the wind ruffling the two peaks of his hair as he crossed his arms. The Grunts stared right back at him, slightly intimidated by his unnerving gaze as their cards fell to the floor.

"How about no, since we've got a lake to secure. Now get up!"

The Grunts flailed with their cards and got back onto their feet in a rush, following Saturn as he made his way further down the route and towards Lake Valor. They then split up through the route, with some staying near the route and others heading to Valor Lakefront to secure the perimeter.

"G1 to Master Cyrus… the Grunts have started to encircle the lake. My team and I are waiting for any more updates from them, and I'll relay them over to you once I get them." Saturn explained.

" _Good, Commander Saturn. Do not fail me again!"_

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 217**_

"Why in Arceus's name is it so cold here!" a lonely Grunt shouted.

"We're all as cold as you, but you don't see us complaining, do you?" Jupiter fired back. "So just shut up and follow orders!"

"I think he got the memo, Commander Jupiter." a female Grunt exclaimed as she pointed towards her comrade sitting on the snow.

"Oh, stop being so soft! We have a lake to raid and a Legendary Pokemon to capture, so you need to get up!" Jupiter shouted.

The Grunt shakily pushed himself back onto his feet and trudged ahead of Jupiter, who had a weird look on her face as she stared him down. She marched over to him, grabbed his uniform, and tossed him aside as she continued to walk in front of her Grunts.

"Now, will everybody listen to me? Your job is to secure the whole perimeter of the lakefront so that I won't be disturbed while I capture Uxie, and that the residents of Snowpoint City don't be disturbed and try to stop us." Jupiter explained.

The Grunts all nodded in unison, and Jupiter smiled. "Good. Now are you all ready to go? Because we have to rush to get everything prepared on time!"

Most of the Grunts flinched as Jupiter yelled in their faces, but their nodding remained persistent. "Good, then we're going now. So get up already!"

The Grunts shook themselves out and began to walk behind Jupiter, who rubbed the sweat off her forehead as she fiddled with the pockets of her parka. She was still upset that she had to travel all the way north in the snow, but she would make sure she would get the best spot during her next mission.

"Man… I hope Saturn or Mars are doing any better than I am… "

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Sandgem Town**_

"Hey, Barry… are you okay?" Dawn asked.

The blonde Pokemon Trainer had his head lying on the table, breathing deeply as the others held similar expressions of disbelief on their faces. They were all speechless as Dawn, Ash, and Brock stared at them weirdly, waiting for them to get back to normal.

"Are you kidding me… no way! You three casually tell us that the whole region is in danger and you don't expect us to react this way?" Barry shouted.

"He's right, you know. You might want to rethink that next time you tell us something as massively bad as this." Leaf added.

Ash shrugged. "Well, we thought it would be best if we just told you what's going on right away, and that's what we did."

"Yeah, but just take the advice for next time." Gary reiterated.

"Okay everyone, get it together!" Brock interrupted. "Does everybody know what's going on right now?"

The group mostly nodded and gave signs of approval. "Good. Now you all have to listen up, since we already came up with somewhat of a plan."

"So, since there are three lakes in Sinnoh, we divided everyone into three groups of six… and Leaf, but it works nonetheless. Dawn, can you pass me the sheet?" Ash exclaimed.

Dawn handed over a piece of paper to Ash. "Here it is, guys. Take a look."

 _Lake Verity Group  
_

 _Dawn, Barry, Kenny, Ritchie, Iris, Clemont_

 _Lake Valor Group_

 _Ash, Misty, Gary, Paul, Drew, Cilan_

 _Lake Acuity Group_

 _Brock, Zoey, Max, May, Trip, Serena_

"Wait, where's my name? I thought you said you would include me in your list, didn't you?" Leaf asked.

"Well, since you were the odd one out, we were gonna let you choose where to go instead. How does that sound?" Ash asked.

Leaf grinned back at her old friend. "Seems good to me, Ash. So I'll just join… the Valor group."

Gary cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I'm just glad that's all sorted out. But how in Arceus's name are we gonna travel across the region so fast?"

Dawn grinned. "Don't worry, we have a plan."

"Hey, Max! Can you come up over here for a second?" Ash asked, motioning for him to come closer.

Max slowly walked over to Ash, seemingly tired from waking up so early as he stretched out his arms, leaning them against the table as Ash got up from his chair right next to him. He looked up to see Ash facing right back at him, a smile on his face as he straightened himself out one more time.

"Max, do you think you'll be able to Teleport from this location to each of the three lakes? You can start off with Lake Verity, since it's so close, but I know you've been training over these past few weeks, so it's not that far-fetched." Ash exclaimed.

"Hey, isn't that a Pokemon's name?" Max broke the tension with a laugh.

The group doubled over in laughter as the paper fell to the ground while Max waited a few seconds, grinning at the happy faces of his friends. He stood patiently for a few more minutes until the others came to their senses, and they soon returned to normal as he straightened himself out once more.

"That was a good one, but we need to stay serious right now. Max, are you sure you can teleport us wherever we need to go?" Brock asked. "We need an answer here, you know."

Max bit his lip in frustration, but a nod eventually escaped his tongue-tied grasp. The others all exhaled as they relaxed themselves, seemingly relieved as they finished packing up their stuff and got up from the booth.

"It's settled, then." Ash reiterated. "We're gonna split up with Max's help, sneak up near whoever's up against us and stop them in their tracks."

He grinned. "Now who's with me!"

The whole group threw their hands up and yelled determinedly, shouting words of encouragement as they all turned around and walked out of the Pokemon Center, the lights turning on behind them as Nurse Joy walked out of her office.

"Hello? Is anybody there?"

"Is the Lake Verity group ready to go? If so, then you should be ready to, Max." Leaf commented as the youngest member of the group looked on with her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Now just walk up to me, and I'll help you from there." Max added.

He walked up to the group and stood in the middle of the clearing they were all standing in, his arms outstretched and his eyes closed as he waited for them to say their goodbyes.

"Good luck out there, Dawn. We'll be rooting for you guys from the other lakes." Ash encouraged.

"Don't lose hope, since we all know you guys can do it. Now go and kick their butts!" Brock added, shaking her hand in defiance.

Dawn nodded her head, her smile beaming across her face as the rest of her small group joined her around Max's meditating body.

"Hey, what about us? Don't we deserve some love too?" Barry moaned.

He looked back at the others with a betrayed look as they just sweatdropped, then turning it into a few shrugs as they stared back at him.

"Sure, Barry. Good luck to all of you guys too!" Leaf shouted back.

Dawn stood next to her group as she looked back to the others, her eyes falling on Paul for a split second before she moved them away once again. She couldn't help herself turn them back to Ash's old rival, who just smirked and gave her a thumbs up as she stood with her group.

While she was looking around, Max created a bubble of psychic energy, spreading it out to surround the whole group. They all stood determinedly around the young Pokemon Trainer as he continued to hold up the bubble, sweat forming on his face from the immense strain he had to uphold.

"I can't hold it much longer, so you have to tell me where to go fast. Or else I'll lose control and send you where you definitely don't want to go. So just give me a location and I can do it right now." Max explained, his eyes still firmly shut.

"All right. Max, take us to Route 201!" Kenny yelled.

"Uh, you got it-augh!" Max shouted back, completely disappearing from the clearing.

"Okay… so what are we supposed to do now?" Misty asked.

Zoey shrugged, sitting down on an empty tree stump. "I'm not sure, but I would think that we should wait for Max to come back so he can teleport us to the other lakes, right?"

"Sure, but how long do you think that will take?" Gary asked.

Ash shrugged. "From what Max told me earlier, probably just a few minutes. He said he would help each group get to a safe place to start their mission, then go right back here and do it again."

"Then I guess we just have to wait for him to get back." Brock explained. "Then why don't we do something while we wait?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to say no to that." Paul fired back.

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 201**_

Ritchie's eyes shot open, his eyes whirling around and trying to figure out why this place looked so different than the one he was in just a second earlier. He soon turned to Max, who was wiping the sweat off his forehead as he sighed in relief.

"Where-where are we?" he stuttered.

"We're on Route 201, from what I can tell. That means we're right near Lake Verity, and… Twinleaf Town…. " Kenny murmured.

"Yeah… but we should avoid going there if we don't want to get caught by anyone. We need to go to the lake as fast as we can and see whoever's trying to catch Mesprit." Dawn explained.

"You're right, Dawn. We need to get a move on, before it's too late." Clemont added.

"Well, I believe my work here is done. See you all in a few hours!" Max exclaimed, teleporting out of there as fast as he could.

"Okay, so what should we do now?" Iris asked. "Do you want to stay here to plan something out, or should we just run to the lake and see what's up?"

"We can't go to Twinleaf Town, Iris. We absolutely cannot." Kenny retorted.

Barry sweatdropped, trying to defend his friend. "What she means is that we should just head over to the lake, since we could get spotted if we go to Twinleaf Town! Right, Kenny?"

"Yeah, sure. I don't want to get caught, and I don't think any of you want to either." Kenny finished.

The group still made their way through the forest path as the trees continued to surround them, blocking some of the sunlight as they made their way west towards Lake Verity, and Dawn started to feel some strain on herself as she trudged along with the group.

"Hey, Dawn! Are you all right?" Clemont asked.

"What? Yeah… I'm fine. Don't worry about me… " she murmured as she brushed some sweat off her forehead.

She tried to catch up to the others, but a massive pain surged through her head as she fell on one knee, trying to get back on her feet as she still was in pain. The others rushed to her from their stances in front of her, looking around her as she struggled to get up.

"Dawn, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Kenny asked worriedly.

She shook her head in pain. "No… it's Mesprit… she's in trouble… "

"We have to move faster, guys! I'll stand by and take care of her, but we need to get a move on!" Kenny yelled.

"You heard him, right? Let's go!" Barry shouted.

He shot up in front of the others and ran in front of them, the reaction taking a while for manifest in their minds until they caught on and chased after the speedy Pokemon Trainer, with Kenny carrying Dawn on his back behind the others as the lake got ever closer.

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 217**_

"Hey, we made it!" Zoey exclaimed happily. "Thanks for the lift, Max!"

"Anytime, guys. See you later!" Max fired back, teleporting away with a smirk.

Brock chuckled to himself, putting a hand to his forehead in laughter. "Man, it's gonna get really annoying with him doing that all the time, huh?"

"Yeah… but Max is always gonna be Max, and that won't ever change. I should know." May exclaimed sheepishly.

"He is your little brother, after all. It would make sense that you would think that." Zoey added.

"We should really get back to the plan, though. We still have to walk through the snow to get to the lake, right?" Trip asked.

Serena nodded. "Trip's right, you know. How long will it take to get to the lake, and how much longer until we can buy a coat or something?"

"You don't really need a coat in this weather, since it's supposedly a pretty warm day up here. Sure, there's still snow up here, but do you feel cold right now?" Zoey inquired.

Serena shrugged. "Yeah, a little… "

"Then you guys just aren't used to the weather here yet. We should get going now, but we don't have time to stop for anything at the moment." Zoey commented.

"Zoey's right." Brock interrupted. "Uxie seems tense at the moment, and I don't want to get to Lake Acuity any later than we should."

"I guess that's settled, then." May added, taking a few steps in front of her group.

The others followed alongside her as they walked in the snow, trudging towards the northern lake as the cold breeze brushed up against them mildly. They continued to make their way up the snowy path and towards the lake, wondering what they could face once they reached the lakefront.

Brock clenched his fists. "Stay strong, Uxie… we're almost there… "

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 214**_

"Yeah, I'm gonna go back up to Lake Acuity, but good luck to you too!" Max encouraged as he disappeared from sight again.

"All right, guys! Who's ready for the biggest mission of our lives!" Gary shouted.

The group cheered, but the yelling soon turned to silence as he noticed Leaf standing in the background, determined as usual and crossing her arms as she walked towards the others.

"Well, we shouldn't just rush into the lakefront without some kind of plan, right?" Leaf asked. "Then again, I think that's why I'm here in the first place."

Ash shrugged. "What do you have to offer, Leaf?"

"So let's say the enemy's already surrounded the lakefront and are just waiting for anybody else to show up before they get started, and so that means the whole areas' gonna be surrounded by those troops." Leaf began.

She grabbed a map right out of Cilan's open backpack and laid it on the grass. "So if they're surrounding the whole lakefront, then we need to find a way to break through the surroundings so we can get to the lake easier."

"Yeah… I can tell Azelf's worried right now… and I wouldn't want to let her down again." Ash murmured.

"Don't worry, Ash. I bet Azelf's gonna be okay once this is all over." Misty reassured.

"Hey, I think I hear something!" Cilan exclaimed, breaking the silence with a shout.

The grass was trampled with upcoming footsteps as the group whirled around, trying to hear whatever Cilan had heard just seconds before. They quickly tensed up as some more mysterious sounds registered in their minds, and they all stood in fear as they got closer.

"Quick, everyone! Hide anywhere!" Leaf shouted.

She quickly dove behind a bush, and the others followed suit as a group of people stopped short in the clearing they were standing in just a few seconds ago. Their green bowl-cut hair and their gray and white uniforms easily identified them as Galactic Grunts, but under the ownership of Rainbow Rocket as well.

"Hey, sarge! What's this map doing here?" asked one of the Grunts.

"How would I know, ya fool!" the one in front shouted. "It's probably just something that a couple of tourists dropped. You do know they love it here, right?"

The Grunt shrugged. "Yeah… sure. I'll just throw it out later once we make our way back to the northern sector, if that's okay with you."

"Do you think I want any unnecessary baggage here? Just leave it here and get a move on already!" the sargeant shouted back.

The Grunt shakily dropped the map and followed the rest of his comrades away from the clearing, heading north as the map laid still on the ground, slightly trampled from the recent events.

"Did you hear that?" Misty asked. "They're increasing forces to the north side, leaving the south side wide open for us to go through!"

"That's perfect, and we don't even need an elaborate plan!" Gary rejoiced.

Leaf raised an eyebrow. "We still need a strategy to make sure nobody gets caught or hurt, you know. We can't just rush in there with-"

"This is a golden opportunity, Leaf! We can't let this go to waste, so let's go!" Ash interrupted.

Leaf clenched her fists as she caught up to the rest of her group. Didn't they know that their foolishness would get themselves all captured or killed one day?

Either way, she would have to smack some sense into them before it was all too late.

"Check it out, guys! There's nobody here on this side of the lakefront!" Gary whispered.

He was tiptoeing through the trees of Valor Lakefront at the head of the group, making sure to go slowly as he saw the clearing of the lake and the city north of it growing closer with each step.

He definitely remembered this place, where he got his butt kicked by Team Galactic's Commander Saturn, leaving Azelf completely open to be captured by Pokemon Hunter J later on. He knew he wouldn't let that happen again, especially if he wanted to save this region from another attempt to destroy it.

"I won't lose this time… mark my words… " he instinctively murmured.

"Gary… are you alright? You sound kinda upset about something." Ash interrupted.

Gary perked up, his eyes landing on Ash as he relaxed for a moment. "Yeah, I'm fine… you don't need to worry about me."

"What we do need to worry about, is the fact that we have no plan!" Leaf shouted from behind. "We can't just run into the fight, since we'll be crushed that way!"

"Listen, Leaf… I know what I'm doing here!" Gary fired back.

"But we need to be careful, Gary! Let's just stay here for a couple of minutes while we make some sort of plan to use. It's better than nothing, after all." Leaf reinforced.

"We're just gonna end up wasting more time, then!" he fired back. "We need to go and stop them now, before it's too late!"

"Gary, don't! We can't try to do anything foolish before you or anybody else gets hurt!" Leaf yelled.

"Guys, stop it!" Ash yelled. "We can't fight with each other before we try to fight an enemy, so you all need to calm down!"

Gary and Leaf both whirled around to face Ash, who had held out his hands between the two with his Aura flaring up as well. He slowly backed away once he realized where he was and laid his arms back to his sides, knowing that his message had been sent.

"Ash's right, guys. We need to work together as a group to defeat these guys, not fight with ourselves!" Misty added.

Leaf nodded. "That's exactly what I'm trying to say, but this guy's just standing in my way here!"

"Well, I think I have a better plan, so can you give me a chance to say it before you do anything else?" Gary asked, shutting his eyes closed instinctively.

He was met with silence, and so he cleared his throat and began to speak. "So what I was trying to say for the past ten minutes was that we need to-"

The silence was still omnipresent around him as Gary noticed that his friends were gone, almost as if they had never been there in the first place. He whirled around, trying to spot them until he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

Gary relaxed, feeling safe for the first time in a couple of minutes. "Oh, I thought you were pulling some kinda prank or somethin-"

As his head spun around to see who had tapped him, he first noticed more green-haired people holding his friends in some sort of handcuffs, his eyes widening in horror at the sight.

The problem was, that wasn't even the worst thing to happen to him right there.

As his body turned around to meet his turned head, he first saw the two peaks of blue hair that stuck up the sides of a rather intimidating man, who had his hands on his hips and a defiant smirk plastered on his face.

"Well, well, well… look who the Meowth dragged in." Commander Saturn chuckled.

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 201**_

"Mesprit… I'm coming… don't lose hope… " a semi-conscious Dawn murmured while still on Kenny's back, shaking due to the speeds her friend was running at.

"Don't worry, Dawn, I'm right here for you!" Kenny gritted.

"Huh… Kenny, what are you doing!" Dawn shouted, her eyes fully open.

Kenny stopped short on the path and let her down from his back, her angry expression catching him off guard. "Well, you collapsed earlier on the path, so I figured I would help you out there."

"Thanks, Kenny, but I don't need your help anymore. Now we just have to figure out where we are, and see where we go from there." Dawn exclaimed.

"Hey, guys! I think I can see Twinleaf Town from over here!"

Dawn and Kenny instantly perked up at the sound of an obnoxiously loud voice reverberating throughout the forest trail.

"Hey… don't ya think that sounded like Barry? I haven't seen him since he pulled away with the others… " Kenny murmured.

"If it is, then let's go. We don't have time to lose, especially with Mesprit depending on us!" Dawn exclaimed, running ahead of Kenny.

Kenny's eyes widened as he watched Dawn take off in the direction of the shout, and the male Pokemon Coordinator soon regained his senses and took off after her, determined to reach her and the others as soon as possible.

"Barry! Is that you up there!" Dawn shouted.

Her legs pumping with each step as she continued to run, with Kenny right on her heels as she saw a clearing past the surrounding trees that seemed to be on the edge of a cliff. After getting a glimpse of her friend's peaked blond hair, she began to walk slower towards the clearing.

"Hey, Dawn! You're okay!" Barry cried, noticing her running up behind him.

Dawn shrugged nonchalantly. "Right back at ya, Barry. How's everyone doing here?"

"We're fine, but we were just waiting for you and Kenny to show up before we could get moving again." Iris exclaimed.

"Well, he should be right behind me, so don't worry about that." Dawn reassured. "But do you guys know where we are right now?"

"Yeah, about that… I think you can tell from here." Barry murmured.

His right arm was outstretched to his side, choosing not to look in that direction that he was pointing to. Dawn rushed to the edge of the cliff to see the landscape below her, the familiarity of the buildings shocking her. She recognized the small houses in the dirt streets, and the patterns of the stores on the main road that ran through the town. Sure enough, her eyes turned even further south to see the road of houses that had defined her childhood, including the one at the corner of the road.

"What the… how did we end up near Twinleaf Town!" Dawn shouted. "I thought we were heading towards the lake, not as far south as here!"

"I guess this is just where we ended up, but I agree with Dawn. We really need to get going towards Lake Verity now." Ritchie exclaimed.

"Hey, guys?" Clemont interrupted. "You might want to take a look at this… "

Iris raised an eyebrow. "What's going on, Clemont?"

"It's a good thing that I brought some extra Clemontic Binoculars for everyone, or else I would be the only one to see, but just take these and zoom in on the town. It doesn't look too good down there." the Lumiose Gym Leader explained.

Kenny snatched a pair of binoculars from Clemont's hand as he put them to his eyes, zooming it to the maximum level as he scanned the town below. He didn't see any signs of terror until he reached the main paved road, where he saw a few people with green hair running down with their Pokemon. One of the green-haired people pointed in front of him, and a Houndoom right next to the man sent out a Flamethrower attack that barely singed the building next to it, and their motives became incredibly clear for Kenny.

"What are they doing… no… " he muttered.

The binoculars fell out of Kenny's shaking hands as he stared at the town below him, the others rushing up to his aid as they wondered what was wrong with their friend.

"Kenny… what did you see down there?" Dawn worrily asked.

He took a deep breath, still shaking in fear. "The… green-haired freaks… they're practically invading the town… "

Dawn's eyes widened, and her arms fell to her sides as she slowly moved toward the edge of the cliff, knowing exactly what Kenny meant by what he said. While the others looked confused as they stood around the clearing, Dawn was worried sick for what the next few hours entailed for her, her friends, and Mesprit.

"Dawn… do you know what Kenny's talking about?" Ritchie asked.

She painfully nodded her head, not taking her eyes off the sight of her hometown. "Yeah… its the same ones we met in Canalave…"

"The remnants of Team Galactic."

"Dawn, I thought you said you didn't want to go near Twinleaf Town!" Ritchie asked. "So why are we going there right now?"

The group of six had raced down the path after Dawn as she ran in front towards the houses and roads of Twinleaf Town, determined to get there before anybody else as she knew how big of a problem this was.

"I'm going because I want to make sure my family's all right. If these guys are here, then they're not drawing as much attention to Lake Verity right now." Dawn explained in stride.

"Okay, then why don't some of you go to the lake to see if anyone's there while Barry, Dawn, and I check out the town?" Kenny exclaimed.

Iris nodded. "If we split up like that, then it'll distract these Galactic guys from both sides! It's perfect!"

"Wait a second… I thought these guys were part of Rainbow Rocket, not Team Galactic. Aren't they the same ones from Canalave City as well?" Clemont asked.

Dawn shrugged. "Maybe so… but they're former members of Team Galactic as well, and I guess I'm just used to calling them that."

"So it's all set, then." Ritchie commented. "Iris, Clemont, and I will all go to Lake Verity, while you three go back to Twinleaf Town."

The three in front nodded, and the ones behind them waved their goodbyes and started to walk up the hilly trail towards Lake Verity, and the inevitable conflict over Mesprit as well.

"So, guys… are you ready?" Kenny asked quietly, his footsteps making soft sounds on the dirt.

Barry enthusiastically jumped into the air. "Ready as I'll ever be! Let's do this thing!"

"Yeah… I'm ready as well." Dawn nodded solemnly.

"Let's go home, guys."

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Route 217**_

"How are we supposed to climb up here to get to the lake?" Max exclaimed. "This hill is massive!"

"I should have known that Lake Acuity is on a fairly elevated plateau, but I completely forgot to mention it with all the commotion this morning! So much for our victory here… " Zoey mumbled.

"Yeah, that would have been a good thing to mention, even with the cold wind kicking in right now!" May added.

"Yeah, and I can't concentrate enough to Teleport us directly through the lakefront because of the snow!" Max added. "If we could move somewhere with less snow falling down and less commotion in general, then maybe I could do it… "

"It's fine, Max. We don't want to waste your energy any more than what you've already done, so you can sit tight for now." Brock reassured.

"If that's the case, then how are we gonna to the lake now?" Trip inquired. "What are we supposed to do, take a helicopter or something?"

"I think I have an idea, but it's incredibly risky for our sakes. We have to make sure we get out of there safely, unless we'll get caught and that'll ruin our whole mission here." Zoey exclaimed.

"Zoey, what exactly are you suggesting?" Serena asked.

Zoey turned around to face the others. "What I'm trying to say… is that we have to go into Snowpoint City."

"My hometown."

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Twinleaf Town**_

"Let's just go onto Main Street, then head over to the side to evade any Rainbow Rocket Grunts." Dawn explained, pointing towards a map of the town.

"That sounds good to me… let's go!" Barry whispered.

He ran ahead of Dawn and Kenny, making his way to the end of the block and shifted his feet inside a doorway, with the two behind him following suit as more Grunts rushed down that very street, not noticing the three teens hiding.

"Okay, let's keep moving left." Kenny added, sneaking left and avoiding even more Grunts on the way.

"Are you sure you wanna go this way, Kenny?" Dawn asked. "You know you're heading… towards home."

Kenny nodded solemnly. "Trust me, Dawn. I know what I'm doing here."

"If you say so, man… I don't wanna get caught because of this. You know this is really risky, right?" Barry added.

"I'll trust Kenny here, and we shouldn't talk much if we want to divert attention from us right now." Dawn commented.

"Let's just keep going so we don't lose our momentum here. If you want, I'll lead the way in front of you guys." She added.

The two boys nodded, and Dawn led the way further south into town with the two right at her heels. They passed blocks and blocks of buildings on their way until the large office buildings and shops started to turn into small houses and dirt pathways as they continued to walk and avoid Grunts.

"Quick, guys! Hide!" Barry shouted.

He grabbed Dawn and Kenny by their shirts and pushed them into the shadow of a doorway as a group of about five Rainbow Rocket Grunts ran directly past them and further south towards the houses down there.

"That was close… but what are they doing so far down south? We already passed by the main section of the town, and there's nothing here but houses and dirt roads." Kenny commented.

Dawn shrugged. "I don't know, but we better go check it out."

She walked in front of the boys as they followed the Grunts further down the dirt road, watching their movements as they stopped in front of a few houses, checking the front doors before moving on and grouping back with each other.

"We need to listen to what they're saying!" Dawn whispered.

She ran further towards the group of Grunts, eventually leaning on an opposite side of a house as the Grunts began to speak to each other. Barry and Kenny followed her over a few seconds later, making sure before they ran not to get spotted by anyone.

"I checked the other houses, but nobody was there. Did any of you guys move them to the warehouse already?" one of the Grunts asked.

Barry's eyes widened. "What? Warehouses?"

"Be quiet! You don't want them to hear us!" Dawn hissed.

"Yes I did, Private." exclaimed the leader. "You can go and check it if you want to make sure, while the rest of us actually focus on the parts of the town we haven't covered yet."

"I'll do just that, sir!" the private responded.

The sargeant sighed and put his head in his hands, shaking his head as he walked away along with the rest of his Grunts. The lone private remained, looking around the empty intersection for a few seconds before heading on even further south, towards the edge of town.

"We have to keep following him! Let's go!" Kenny whispered.

Dawn nodded. "This is definitely worth the risk, guys."

The three once again ran past the empty dirt roads towards the south edge of town, tailing the single Grunt closely as he made his way past the last few streets of houses and eventually walking into the grass fields until he spotted something in the distance.

"Where do you think he's going?" Barry asked.

"I don't know, but we need to find out." Kenny added as he slipped in front.

The Grunt made a right turn into a nearby cluster of trees, and the three continued to follow him before he stopped in front of a steel bunker, almost a mile away from the main area of town. He slipped in a key card and the heavy door slid open, allowing him to slip in undetected.

Dawn was in front of the boys as she stopped behind a fairly large tree extremely close to the bunker, peeking out from its side as she saw the Grunt turn on the light and look in front of him at the trapped residents.

"It's a good thing you haven't escaped yet, or else I would have been in big trouble right now." the Grunt exclaimed. "So how are y'all doing?"

"How are you so happy when we're in chains… you monster… " a familiar voice muttered.

Dawn gasped. "Mom?"

"Well, I am getting paid for this, so I kinda have to do my job. And it's real funny to see the leader of the Battle Frontier in chains, too." the Grunt added. "Isn't that right, Johanna?"

"What does that guy think he's doing? He's not some king, he's just a guy working at minimum wage!" Barry hissed.

"You may be asking where my fellow Grunts are, but they have to drag more of your friends and throw them in here. I know it's inhumane, but you gotta do what you gotta do to win." the Grunt added.

"Who do you think you are, honestly? You can't just capture us and leave us here to die!" a different voice shouted.

The Grunt shrugged. "Whatever, man. I control all the cards, and you just wait before my sergeant and the Commander gets here. Then it'll be game over for all of you here."

"Besides, what can you do right now? You're tied up in chains with nowhere to run, and no battle maneuvers can get you out of this one, Palmer." he added.

Barry clenched his fists as he stared from behind that tree, absolutely fuming once he heard his father's name come out of that idiot's mouth. He tried to keep his emotions down right then, but they were at the verge of getting the better of him.

"Now, who here is gonna stop me!"

Barryfelt something snap in his chest, and everything went white for a moment as his emotions completely took over. He focused her eyes on the Grunt, who was still bragging in the bunker, and took off.

He could hear his loud footsteps as he ran towards the bunker, grabbing the Grunt by the collar and dragging him outside the steel structure. She heard gasps from the people inside and maybe from Kenny and Dawn, but she didn't care.

All he could focus on was teaching that Grunt a lesson as he ran off away from the bunker and, still holding him by the collar of his uniform as he kicked and punched him in the face. The Grunt looked like he was going to collapse, but he still continued to bring an onslaught of punches and kicks with every second.

"Stop it, Barry! What are you doing!" Dawn shouted.

Kenny nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's not worth it! We need to get out of here!"

Barry shook his head, wondering why the voices of her friends were coming from so far away. He ignored the protests either way as he left the Grunt wrecked and speechless, probably due to the fact that he was too injured to speak at the moment.

"That was for my town… " he murmured, punching the immobile Grunt in the face.

Barry smirked evilly. "This one's for my dad… "

He kicked the Grunt in the crotch, causing him to barely squeak out a cry of pain as he wrinkled in Barry's strong grip, now being completely wrecked and basically dead at this point.

"And this one's… for everything else you've done!" Barry yelled, punching him square in the stomach and sending the Grunt flying backwards into a tree, collapsing onto the ground.

Barry relaxed for a moment, standing in place as Dawn and Kenny ran up to him to see if he was okay. He turned around to greet them, having a shaky grin on his face compared to the shock of his two friends.

"Barry, what was that?" Kenny asked. "And how did you beat up that guy so quickly?"

Barry shrugged. "I'm honestly not sure, but we gotta get out of here! I think they're trying to come after us!"

The group turned around to see the people peek their heads out of the bunker, trying to spot their savior as the trio immediately booked it. They ran into the forest and continued to do so, trying to get far away from home as possible and towards Lake Verity.

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Lake Valor**_

Gary's eyes widened, his fists clenched and the rest of his body frozen in fear as Saturn stood in place, now holding a Pokeball in his right hand as his smirk continued to show on his arrogant face.

"What the-where are my friends? How did you take them so fast?" Gary asked.

Saturn laughed out of the blue. "You did have your eyes closed for a few long seconds, right?"

Gary winced, but he stood strong in front of the Galactic Commander with a hurt look on his face. A short breeze started to flow through the area, ruffling the Pokemon Researcher's hair a little but leaving Saturn unaffected.

"Don't worry about your friends, as they're safely across the other side of the lake already. You're going to have to get to me without any of your meddling friends to help you out." Saturn mocked.

"Fine… then I guess I have to at least try." Gary exclaimed.

Saturn raised an eyebrow. "Cocky, aren't we? I'll be the one to put you in your place!"

"Toxicroak, finish him!" Saturn shouted.

The RR Admin threw the Pokeball he had in his hand into the air, where it burst open to reveal the Toxic Mouth Pokemon in all of its anger and glory. Gary backed up in fear, watching Saturn's ace Pokemon as it stared him down.

"Use Dark Pulse!" Saturn ordered.

Gary jumped sideways to dodge the fast ray of Dark energy, then ducking down when another blast came his way. Saturn grit his teeth as the annoying researcher continued to evade his attacks, and he needed a backup plan to ensure he didn't win against him.

"Now, use X-Scissor to finish him!" he shouted.

Gary tried to avoid the attack, but there wasn't any extra space to move around at all between the attack and his body. He braced himself for the pain as he felt the two blades connect with his chest, sending him backwards onto the ground as Saturn gazed in victory.

"You can't win. We'll take your friends back to Kanto, and Giovanni will have his way with them, I can tell you that much." Saturn bragged.

Gary pushed himself up to his knees shakily. "No… I won't lose to the likes of you again… "

"And after that, my team will be able to capture Azelf once more without any interruptions!" Saturn yelled. "Squadron A, go!"

Gary turned to his right and watched as numerous Rainbow Rocket Grunts raced up to the edge of the lake, and dropped what looked like a cylindrical capsule into the water, landing with a splash and immediately sinking to the bottom.

"What the-what was that thing you just put into the lake!" Gary shouted.

"Oh, that new device?" Saturn bragged. "It's just a smaller and advanced version of our famous Galactic Bomb, developed at Headquarters in Kanto. Our leader was so gracious to gift my fellow Commanders and I these devices so we can capture the lake guardians easier."

"The Galactic Bomb?" Gary asked. "Wasn't that that huge thing you dropped from your giant helicopter that split the lake in two?"

"Nice to see you remembering our work, you brat. The previous model of the Galactic Bomb was used in our first conquest of Lake Valor, and now we have used it again to our success. Just watch!" Saturn yelled.

Gary looked on as the water in the lake again split apart to reveal a deep hole to the sand at the bottom, but a small sphere rose out of that hole, glowing as it left the lake and began to grow in size.

The light blinded both Gary and Commander Saturn for a few seconds, but once the light disappeared and the two of them uncovered their eyes, they both saw Azelf once again in its true glory.

"Yes… yes! I knew it would work again, and I won't fail again!" Saturn yelled.

"Squadron A, fall back!" he continued. "I'll catch it myself."

Gary watched as he grabbed a purple and black-colored Pokeball and spun it around in his hand, waiting for Azelf to see Saturn and his subordinates ready to catch it and succeed in their plans.

Azelf's eyes soon fell on Saturn, flying back in fear from his intimidating gaze but was stopped by the group of Grunts with Pokeballs of their own. The Being of Willpower soon found itself surrounded on all sides of the lake, the city serving as a nice backdrop to the flying Pokeballs.

Gary heard some noise in the distance, and he ran away from a distracted Saturn to find the source. He then saw Ash and his friends in chains on the other side of the lake, running over to him as Saturn was much too distracted with throwing Pokeballs at Azelf, who luckily managed to dodge them all.

"Gary… you need to help Azelf… she's in pain and I can feel it… " Ash murmured.

Gary looked on at his hurt friends as they tried to struggle out of their chains, but to no avail. His eyes locked on with Leaf for a moment, her hurt and weak gaze not matching his sharp and determined one.

It was the first time he had seen that much of a difference, and he could almost hear her voice inside his head, cheering him on and encouraging him to succeed alone against all odds.

He turned back to see Azelf still constantly dodging the Pokeballs that Saturn had thrown, immensely frustrating the Commander as he tried to capture the lake guardian.

"Azelf… I'm here to help you, but how in the world can I do it?" Gary asked to nobody.

He looked on as Saturn threw another purple Pokeball that Azelf then shot back at him with its tail, but it clearly had an effect on the Being of Willpower. It cried out in pain along with Ash as Saturn covered his hurt face, and Gary clenched his fists as the screams of his friends surrounded him.

Saturn soon grabbed another Pokeball from his pocket and enlarged it, ready to strike down an already weak Azelf with a single throw. Gary grit his teeth, his fists still clenched as he knew the fate of his friends depended entirely on him. He felt something building up inside of him until it burst with a large crack, and he rushed at Saturn with fury present in his eyes.

Saturn put his arm back as he smiled evilly, waiting for just the right moment to throw the Dark Ball and capture Azelf for good. He was interrupted by what seemed like a large cracking sound as he looked down to see something slam him in the stomach.

Saturn felt massive pain in that region as his head struggled to turn up to see who the attacker was, but he could barely recognize him when he did. He had some black glowing thing surrounding him, and his eyes seemed to be filled with that same color as he then grabbed Saturn by the collar of his shirt.

"I won't let you hurt my friends anymore, you asshole. Now you're gonna pay for what you've done." Gary exclaimed defiantly.

Saturn couldn't speak as Gary lifted Saturn up into the air, only to jump up to meet him and send him down with what looked like a dark blade in his hand. Out of the corner of his eye, Saturn's Toxicroak watched in horror as its master was being destroyed by someone of such incredible power.

He stepped to the side as the Grunts rushed over to their Commander, wanting to make sure he was alright as Gary stepped to the side and ran back to his friends, power still flowing through his veins.

Gary grabbed the chains that were holding Ash to a wooden stake and pulled them with all his might, breaking them in half as Ash stretched his arms in freedom. He then did the same to everyone else's chains, leaving them on the ground in tatters as the rest of the group stood up next to him.

"Gary, what you did was amazing! You've unlocked your Aura!" Ash exclaimed.

The Pokemon Researcher just shrugged. "Yeah… I think I could tell."

"That's great and all, but we really should get out of here before they all stop crowding over there!" Misty shouted.

"She's right, let's roll!" Leaf added enthusiastically, not being able to take her eyes off Gary.

Just as he was about to run, Ash saw Azelf fly up to him from the middle of the lake, and nuzzled him repeatedly as the Grunts still were taking care of their Commander. Ash raised an eyebrow, but the Being of Willpower just pointed in front and began to fly away from the lakefront, the group right behind it.

"Azelf, why'd you leave the lake! I thought you needed to be near it to protect it!" Ash exclaimed.

"This isn't the time to be dealing with this right now!" Paul interrupted. " Just follow me and we can get to someplace safe!"

The group turned its collective attention to Paul, and they silently agreed with him after a few seconds of debating inside their heads. They began to run behind him as he led the way north through Route 214, and away from Lake Valor completely.

* * *

 _ **January 6, 2003. Sinnoh Region - Snowpoint City**_

"Zoey, are you sure you know where you're going?" Serena asked. "What if someone spots you and the rest of us here?"

Zoey grit her teeth in frustration. "I know what I'm doing, so just follow me and we'll be fine. I guarantee it."

"All right… if you say so." May commented, slightly shivering from the cold.

"I know it's gonna be hard to get to the lake from here, but if Zoey says this way's safe, then I'd trust her any day of the week, including today." Brock encouraged.

"We get it, Brock. Let's just focus on not talking much and getting to where we need to go, so we don't cause trouble." Trip interrupted.

The rest of the group seemed to follow Trip and Zoey's lead as they made their way through the seemingly empty streets, with most people who were even outside to see them mostly brushing them aside as if they didn't matter to them at the moment. The snow was coming down harder, forcing most people back inside their homes and away from looking onto the street or being on it themselves.

"It's nice that the snow's making more people avoid us than usual, and it's helping us get through the city faster." Zoey relaxed.

Max nodded. "Yeah, but we can't have any more distractions here-what are you staring at?"

Zoey's eyes were fixated on a two buildings positioned next to each other on the end of a dirt road, with one being much larger than the other. The closest one was a small, two-story building that was made out of stone, but the one to its right was a massive structure with seemingly new glass panels on the top of its circular structure.

"Zoey? Are you all right?" Serena asked.

The Pokemon Coordinator shook her head, trying to clear her mind as she continued to stare at the two buildings in front of her. She slowly took some steps towards that side of the block as the others looked on, confused and worried for their friend.

May grabbed her left arm, pulling her back a few inches. "Zoey! Snap out of it!"

"Shh! Don't say her name that loudly!" whispered Trip from behind.

The group then quieted down as a whole, but they were still holding on to Zoey for dear life as she tried to break away and run back to those buildings directly in front of her. Brock, Trip, and Serena joined in to help their friend, making sure she wouldn't be too reckless and jeopardize their whole mission.

Zoey's determination soon proved to be stronger than her five other friends, as she broke away from their grips and ran across the street towards the two buildings, with the others taking a few seconds to react and stand still before chasing after her themselves.

"What are you doing! Come back!" Max begged.

Brock shook her head. "There's no time for yelling now, Max. We need to get to her as quickly as possible!"

The five other members raced across the busy street after Zoey, who was already running towards the doors of the building, opening the door to the second one and easily walk inside. The group faltered for a second when they saw her disappear behind the closed door, but they quickly reacted a few seconds later and gave chase again.

They dodged a few cars racing down the uneven dirt road, and the group relaxed for another second once they reached the side of the street that the buildings were located on. Ignoring the increase in snowfall that was falling on them, they regrouped and waited for somebody there to take action.

"Which one did she go inside? We have to find her!" Serena yelled.

"I think it was this one!" Trip shouted. "Let's go!"

He took a sharp right turn towards the second building, pushing the heavy doors open as the group raced in alongside him. They made their way through the hall, with a white and red symbol lining the walls, leaving Brock fairly surprised.

"Guys, wait! This is supposed to be a Pokemon Gym, not some sort of random building!" he yelled. "I'm sure Zoey had a purpose in coming here, so-"

Brock was met with silence as he finished his sentence, and he turned around to match the group's collective gaze in front of them, being greeted with dread and shock at the same time.

He recognized the smirking face belonging to Jupiter of Team Galactic and her fellow Grunts, but what most shocked him was the person standing in the center of it all, tied up in chains. Candice, the Snowpoint Gym Leader, was unconscious and tied to the wall of her own Gym, defeated as Jupiter turned her gaze towards the newcomers.

Zoey's jaw dropped, herself unable to speak due to the amounts of shock she was feeling right now. All she could do was focus on Candice's unconscious body and turn to the Rainbow Rocket soldiers, her stare going back to Candice only a few seconds later on repeat.

"Well, look who just dropped in for us!" Jupiter exclaimed.

"That's a shame, since you'll never leave this place alive after today."

* * *

And that's the end of Part 1 to another two-part mini-saga. Hope you're excited for the next chapter!

I know this seems like a big change from my happy attitude over the past couple of chapter commentaries, but I have to be honest with you here for a moment. Even though I really like to write these chapters and hope to finish my story, they take a really long time to write over a two-week period, and it kind of takes a toll on me and leaves me with little time to lots of other things that I like, which is disappointing. I don't know if I'll put the story on a hiatus once this arc is over, give up on it entirely, or keep writing it till the end (I have around 12-13 chapters left), but I hope to finish it eventually. I'm glad many of you have supported this story over the past nine months, but I still need to make a big decision about its fate moving forward.

As always, feel free to review, and I'll see you in the next one!


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